Shinobi Bender
by Ofunu
Summary: Kyuubi goes to the past and takes Naruto's soul with him. But he takes a detour to the spirit world in order to get the blond some extra help. Re-Upload. Rating might change. NaruSaku
1. Chapter 1

**PLEASE READ!: It seems that FF decided to play a prank on me, a bad one. First it was being a difficult b*tch while I tried to upload the newest chapter, and when I finally succeeded the story was taken down for some reason, as of now unknown to me. **

**Even re- uploading this single chapter was a pain in the ass, so who knows how long it will take to get the entire story up again, it might be until tomorrow so please be patient. I know many of you were possibly eager to read the new chapter, I was eager to know your thoughts on it too, but today is just not my day it seems.**

.-._.-._.

Prologue

"I am dying"—stated a blond man sitting in front of a huge cage inside of what seemed to be a stronghold with blood painting the walls

"**You are"**—answered a deep voice from within the cage

"You know what to do"

"**I do"—**answered the voice

"Will you really do it? After all this is a chance for you to be free"

"**It is, but now that I have seen what has happened…you stand a better chance than I alone"**

"You will have to act fast"

"**Don't worry old geezer, what you humans consider fast is slow motion for a great being like me"**

"Hmp, and yet here we are"

"**That idiot didn't know what I was capable to really do at the time"**

"You know the plan then"

"**Don't bother; I know exactly what must be done, but make sure to archive the key design"**

"Done already, and I archived the instructions of the plan as well as many other things, don't mess things up"

"**Who do you think I'm old geezer?"**

"Can't believe an ancient being is calling me 'old geezer'"

"**I'm not wrinkled like you"**

"Well, being immortal sure helps…I don't have much time left"—after the blond said that the place they were in went absolute blank and then only the cage was left, the stronghold was gone and only nothingness remained, the blond held a shinning sphere in his hands—"be quick"

"**Don't worry, geez, some trust would be appreciated"**

"He, now that I think about it you won't be calling me old geezer anytime soon after this"

"**That's alright; I can wait other 50 years"**

"Alright, chitchat is over, let's do this"—the old blond then stood up and neared the cage, still holding the sphere—"in 3…2…1…NOW!"—as he shouted the last part he opened the cage and the creature inside swallowed the sphere just a second before a bright light covered them

.-._.-._.

_**I don't have much time—**_thought the giant fox as he travelled along a labyrinth of tunnels as fast as it could—_**damn, I forgot the way! I must hurry or else it will fade, it**__** will last longer than **__**normal since it's inside me but it won't be much, damn what to do?**_—shouted the demon inside his head as it kept running along the tunnels—_**maybe in the spiritual plane it will last longer, I'm not sure but I must give it a try, I hav**__**en't been there in a long while, but spirits had been always at war with demons, a shame our plane has been destroyed as well, whatever, better face those annoying spirits than lose hope—**_then in front of the gargantuan fox a bright portal opened and the demon crossed it

.-._.-._.

"Halt demon!"—shouted a ape-like man as he held a spear against the throat of the fox that had just crossed the portal—"what is a accursed creature like you doing in our territory?"

"**I'm on a mission, nothing against your kind **_**spir**__**it,**_** but I have a charge that will fade soon, and I thought that maybe in your plane it will last longer"**

"What is your charge demon?"

"**A human mind that needs delivery or else the world is doomed, and you now that without world it's only a matter of time before your world fades as well, now that I think about it maybe some help from your kind will be useful, for the welfare of both our kinds this human must succeed, and he needs all the help he can get"**

"I had heard that the human world was already diminishing, what can you do to help?"

"**Hmp, an advantage that demons have over spirits is that unless we are killed by your kind we are not affected by time, do you follow me?"**

"I…see, that could indeed help a lot, why are you helping this human though? Unlike our realm yours will not be destroyed if the human world ceases to exist, why would a demon help?"

"**Because one, my realm has been destroyed already and two, the one that destroyed it and now is about to destroy the human world is stronger than myself, this human though has the potential to triumph, I already am doing my part, will your kind help as well?"**

"Very well…we, the spirits will do our part as well, what do you want me to do demon?"

"**Take me to the hall of those that can no longer step the human realm but still exist"**

"The masters of all that lives? You mean to give this human such power?"

"**Trust me; he will need it, for only one who reigns the world forces can defeat darkness' incarnation"**

"…you…you cannot mean…when was it freed?"

"**He is still caged, the original at least, it's a second one that appeared, and I don't doubt this new one will try to free the original and either devours him to gain its strength or join forces to cause more mayhem"**

"I see…well, follow me, I will guide you to their hall"—and then the ape-like man started walking away towards a huge tower covered with a lot of moss, the fox followed suit

.-._.-._.

"Your highnesses"—called the guard once both him and the fox were inside the tower—"excuse me for intruding your sanctuary, but an emergency has arisen in the human realm and we must act or eventually our world will be affected as well"

The room they were in was as tall as the tower, no stair, no windows, just many pedestals along the circular wall; the room was absolutely empty, except by the uncountable statues stationed on the pedestals each of different men or women, suddenly the whole room was illuminated, but there was neither candles nor any other light source, the light came from the statues themselves, a faint flue light

"**We have seen the disgrace in which the human realm has fallen, we know what the demon is doing here and what he intends to do, though a noble cause is that which he carries the one to receive our blessings must be tested"**—said all the statues in unison

"**I assure you, avatars of the many ages, that the individual I wish you to bless is worthy, many times I tried to corrupt him but he never gave in, in the end it was him the one to change me instead of the other way around, he cannot be blinded by power if that's what you fear, and hate cannot consume him for his life was a hard one yet he held his head up"**

"**That might be true, but it's a demon's word and we cannot help but doubt your claim, show us the soul"**

"**I fear it will fade outside of my body"**

"**Fear not, a soul cannot fade while in our realm"**

"**Alright, on your shoulder will fall the weight of humanity's fate if you are wrong"—**then the fox opened its mouth and from it the bright orb it swallowed earlier appeared and floated towards the center of the room, as soon as it was there the light emitted from the statues grew stronger and everyone was blinded, when it reseeded the soul floated back to the fox

"**Tested it has been, and our approval it has gotten, very well, we shall grant this soul our master****y, and we shall grant you the knowledge to teach him our ways for no one of us can step on his realm since the chain was broken"**—once again a blue light engulfed the room and when it faded away the statues ceased to shine and the orb was surrounded by a blue aura, the fox engulfed the orb as it had done before, its eyes shined blue as well and then the light faded

"**It's done, now spirit"**—said the fox referring to the ape-like man again—**"guide me, I don't know the way I need to follow to reach my destination****"**

"Fine, how many years?"

"**54 years, once we are in the year I can find my way to the day"**

"Alright, follow me then"

.-._.-._.

Konoha, October 10th, Day of the Kyuubi's attack

"I'm sorry my son"—said a blond man holding a buddle in his arm, he was standing on top of a giant toad's head—"but I must protect the village, everyone will see you as a hero"

_**As if—**_sound de a voice in his head

"Wah? What was that?"—asked the man looking everywhere but still alert to the giant fox in front of him

_**It's me, in front of you human, I'm talking to you with my mind, I want to speak with you, we don't have much time**_

"What do you want? Haven't you done enough?"

_**Shut the hell up!, you can just think what you want to say, I will hear you perfectly, I need to talk to you, and you better listen, you will seal me as you planned, I just thought that it was only right for you to know your child's destiny, you see, being a demon I am not affected by the time flow, so I can pretty much travel in time, now the important thing, you must know you are condemning your child, he won't be treated as a hero, all the opposite, he will be an outcast, but you will seal me anyway, for he bears a destiny heavier than only your village, and he will need my power, now, you must know that this attack was planned by a man named Madara Uchiha, he thinks he is controlling me, but I grew immune to his eyes long ago, well, long from now would be more accurate, so this attack I'm faking it, because I need to be sealed in your child, fear not, I will protect him, and he will be greater that you ever was, now you must seal me or Madara will be suspicious, know that everything I have told you is not to prevent the sealing, it's for your soul to rest in peace knowing your child will be fine, even though the village you are trying to protect is not worth it, so do it now**_

_Thank you, it's a shame that the village won't see Naruto for the hero he is, but if he will be fine then I have no regrets, I leave him in your care—_then the Yondaime Hokage started doing some hand seals—"_Shiki Fuuin!_"—after that a translucent being appeared behind the blond and he took the Kyuubi to seal it away inside the buddle just before eating the man's soul

.-._.-._.

The Kyuubi then found himself behind a set of very familiar bars; everything around it was a mess of colors

_**Grrr, I forgot how his mind was when he was only an infant, well, good think it won't last long—**_the fox opened its mouth and the orb, still surrounded by the blue aura, floated away and once outside the cage it exploded and the stronghold with blood covered walls was once again surrounding the cage, then in front of it the old blond materialized in front of it

"Did it work?"—asked he as soon as he was complete

"**Hmp, even better, I got you some extra powers, you see, I forgot the way to get here and since your mind was about to fade I went to the spirit realm to prevent it, and then I got the idea of getting some spirit help"**

"So? What did you get me?"—asked the old blond, who was little by little rejuvenating, his wrinkles were fading and his muscles were becoming more defined

"**There was one spirit once, that was able to dominate the nature elements, not the way you use jutsu, but instead he commanded them to move just as he did, when he died another being appeared with the same abilities, and his soul was linked to the one that had just faded away, the cycle repeated innumerable times, the being came to be known as the avatar, that was many many many millenniums ago, at one point the chain broke and the soul was unable to step on this realm again, anyway, long story short I got all those souls to grant you the same power, and they gave me the knowledge to teach you that, so as soon as your body is developed enough we will start your training in the bending arts, which is a training in taijutsu at the same time since for you to bend the elements you have to move certain way, but we can cover that once we start, no use getting ahead of us"**

"Bending, huh?"—said a blond that now appeared to be 25 years old

"**Damn, and here I thought I would still be able to call you old geezer, seems I won't be able to do that for a while"**

"Told you so, I may have had 54 years back then, but I had the mind of a guy in his 20's, now that my body is young again I guess this is how I will look in here for a while, though these will be some hard 5 years, or 4 if I get started early"

"**Whatever, I think you better go out now, the old fool is about to reveal your status to the council, you better try and stop him if you want to have some normality in your life"**

"I guess, see you later"—with that the mental image of Naruto disappeared from his mindscape

.-._.-._.

"Good, you are all here"—said an old man as he entered a hall, where many men and women were waiting for him, these people were the council—"I called you for an update of the attack status"

"We know the yondaime was able to defeat the demon"—said Fugaku, the currently head of the Uchiha clan—"how was he able to?"

"Sigh, that's what I want to discuss with you all, for starters the Yondaime is death…"—at this Fugaku and Danzo were about to talk but Hiruzen didn't give them the opportunity—"…as such I will retake the position of Hokage, there is no time to search another successor, now the next matter, this child"

"Who is he?"

"His name is Uzumaki Naruto"—said a white haired man who stood to 6.2 ft—"he is…"—he was cut off by the old Sarutobi

"An orphan, and not only that, he is also the co…"—he was cut off by a pair of small hands covering his mouth; he looked down to find the kid he had in arms laughing while still holding his mouth shut, the kid let it go and looked at him whit his bright blue eyes—"sigh, poor kid, as I was saying, he is the…"—again the pair of hands shut him up, he looked at the boy again, he was laughing as only a baby can, again the just born let him go—_it as if he knows and doesn't want me to tell, could it be that? No, it's impossible, he has been alive only for hours, not even a day, which takes me to think, shouldn't I take him to the hospital to be taken care of?—_thought the old man—"Never mind, he is an orphan now, he is the son of Uzumaki Kushina…"

"That Whirlpool woman?"—asked Danzo—"I see, so she died, a shame, she was a great kunoichi" _This boy could bear his mother's talents, maybe I could make him one great tool_

"That she was, but not only that, he is son of…"—the Hokage stopped as he thought—_Minato, forgive me, but if I don't give them a reason as to why I brought him here then they will suspect, and your son seems to not want me to tell them about his burden_ "…he is the son of our beloved Yondaime Hokage"—at this many of the presents gasped and stared at the kid with both, awe and…pity?

"Then why is he named Uzumaki? He shall be named Namikaze if he is the son of the Yondaime"—said Homura, one of Hiruzen's old teammates

"No, he won't be named after his father…yet, it's true, he is the son of Minato, but you all must take into account that he had many enemies, specially Iwa, if it came to be known that Minato had a son then this boy would be in great danger, this is something the council must know for in the future he will be given his inheritance but for now I shall forbid this information to get out, no one is to know that the Yondaime had a son,this is a SS-class secret, is that clear? Violation of this law shall be death and imprisonment, torture and interrogation of all those related to the perpetrator, family included"

_Damn, now I won't be able to touch him, if he is the son of the yondaime then the council won't approve, unless—_thought Danzo as he eyed the buddle the Hokage had in his arms—"we should protect the kid then, if information gets out he should be well protected, I could provide a group of my root, they will gladly give their lives for the son of Namikaze-san"

"As would any of us"—stated one Hiashi Hyuga

"Don't worry Danzo, the boy will be protected, my men will do it"

"I…see, very well then, it's good to know he will be safe"

"Now, onto more important matters, the attack was a hard strike to our village, I will ask the cooperation of all the clans to provide their best shinobies, we will be taking as many missions as possible, given our situation we can't take the luxury of rejecting missions, the civilians will take on the duty of reconstructing the village while the shinobies will provide the financial base…"

_Yada, yada, yada, I always hated this political crap, I guess it's a necessary crap, but it's still annoying to hear all these things—_thought the man in a baby's body—_and to think I will need to act the part of an infant for 4 years at the very least, I__ should fake I learn to read and write sooner, maybe when I'm 2 years old and then I will be able to at least read some novels or something, it will make this more bearable_

_**Poor you, at least you are not caged like me, stop complaining, you have it good, I got the worse part**_

_Easy fur ball, as soon as I can I will redesign the key my father created for the seal and take you out from time to time_

_**You better do so, if you keep me here for too long I will give you cramps in parts you don't know you have**_

_Alright, we both have to deal with this, and you know we are doing this for the sake of the whole world, yours included so you too stop complaining_

_**These will be some long years**_

_That they will_

.-._.-._.

**Alright, don't really know how I came to think of this, well, maybe I do, but don't know if I will finish this since I'm working in another fic, I just wrote this because I wouldn't leave my mind and let me continue that other story, I will update soon, but since that other story has priority and school has priority over both don't expect it to be too soon.**


	2. Chapter 2

**OK, it seems that the problem that caused the original story to be taken down wasn't actually a problem of FF but rather a problem of my computer. I had just installed Visual Studio and it appears that something went wrong during the installation (damn Microsoft) that made some internet protocols malfunction and send the wrong instruction. I'm not sure, I'm no expert.**

**Anyway, so I had to format my computer which is the reason it took an extra day to upload everything again. Hopefully that fixed the problem and it won't happen again. Unfortunately, even though I back up all my files every week in case something like this happens, I didn't back up the newest chapter of this story. That was stupid, I know! So now you will have to wait while I re-write it. That wasn't the only file I lost either, I have to download and redo a lot of things I had done this week since I didn't back them up. SORRY T_T**

.-._.-._.

Ch. 1: Time flies

_God, these have been some long four years! –_screamed one Uzumaki Naruto in his mind—_and the__se other kids don't make this any easier!_

_**Hey, you are the one who made it this way, at least, now that no one but the Sandaime and that pervert knows your secret you can lead a more normal life as an orphan, they didn't kick you out this time**_

_I wish they would! It would be easier to do the key if I had not as many eyes on me all the time, I get a rest from the ANBU but then there is the caretaker, I just don't have any time for myself!_

_**What were you expecting, they might not know about me, but now they know about your heritage so now instead of being hated you are too loved, almost as that Uchiha**_

_Ugh, don't even mention that, I still resent the bastard, even though he hasn't done anything in this timeline yet_

_**You have a better life now, you can get into shop and they won't kick you out, they don't give you overrated prices, you will be able to eat something besides ramen this time! And you won't have teachers trying to mess your advance, not that it would matter, you will learn the bending taijutsu styles anyway as for ninjutsu, the same bending will cover for that, genjutsu you were never one to use that too much, and you can practice the resangan and hiraishin**_

_And how, mr. ancient, do you suggest me to do that without being discovered?_

_**Come on! You are his son, the civilians will wonder but the council will not, they won't suspect anything, they are so naïve they will think you only figured that out by yourself and that you are a genius even greater than your father, which isn't so far from reality, I doubt that your father had thought of those techniques at this age**_

_I just want to live by myself again, it was much more comfortable_

_**You could always ask the old man for that; he seems to like you as much in this time line as he did back then**_

_Yeah, but I need a valid reason, I can't just ask him to give me an apartment just because the hell of it, if they were to kick me out of this place it would be so much easier, but that won't happen_

_**Hye, now that I think about it, for now the people here treats you well, but if you use the key then I will be able to get out, then the people will figure things out and hate you again as they did before**_

_I can wait until my heritage is revealed; they won't hate the son of the Yondaime_

_**Well, you can wait…but I can't!**_

_We can figure something out then_

"…to"—called a feminine voice from within the orphanage that took him out of his inner talk with Kyuubi—"Naruto! Where are you? The Hokage came to see you"

"Jii jii!"—called Naruto with his happy go lucky smile—_I hate acting childish, I__ still love the old man as a grandfather and all, but come on! I'm 54 for god's sake!_

_**58, you had 54 before and 4 years had passed since then**_

_It doesn't count, I'm 54 and that's that_

"Naruto, there you are, come in, the Hokage came to visit you"—called the care taker, a girl not older than 26-27 years old, with glasses and brown hair

"Coming!"—the blond kid stood up and went into the building

"Naruto"—called Hiruzen—"where were you? Bah, doesn't matter, you sure were watching some clouds or something like that, how have you been?"

"Good Jii jii, but, I'm getting bored of the book here, I want to read something else, I want to learn cool jutsus and how to be a ninja! And there is nothing of that here"

"Hmm, well, I guess you will have to wait for the academy"

"Hey jii jii, do you think I could get some other place to live?"

"He?"—asked the caretaker—"why do you want that Naruto? Don't you like it here?"

_Of course not you bitch, I still hate you for kicking me out the first time, you may look sweet but god know__s you are a damn bitch _"It's not that, I like it here, but I don't think anyone will adopt me like ever, and I would like a place to train and learn ninja stuff, here I can't do that because I could hurt someone"

"Well Naruto, that can't be, you are still too young, maybe in a couple of years"

_Damn it, not that I expected anything different, but I had some hope _"Come on jii jii, at least let me borrow some stuff from the library, or teach me something about that cool ninja stuff, I want to be a great ninja, I'm going to be Hokage one day and I need to start early for that, come on ojii san, the other kids will get training from their families and will have advantage, I want at least have something like that, I don't ask for you to teach me everything, but I don't want to be behind the kids with a family" _Maybe that will work, if I press the matter about my lack of family he may give me what I want_

"Hmmm, well, it's certainly true that kids from clans will have some advantages, but then again there are many others like you that have no clan and want to be shinobies as well Naruto, if I give you some advantage like that then I would have to give it to all the other kids like you"

_Pu-lease! As if that stopped you the first time, not that you know it anyway _"Then why don't you create a ninja nursery or something like that, that teach the very very basics"

"You won't let go, will you Naruto?"

_Damn right ojii san, I want my apartment back—_the blond shook his head

"Sorry Naruto, I can't do that, it would be unfair for the other kids that live here"—the blond frowned and looked defeated then he looked up again with that big smile of his

"Alright, I guess it would really be unfair, hey jii jii, can we go get some ice cream?"

"Sure Naruto, I will be taking him out"—informed the old man to the caretaker

"It's alright, but Hokage Sama, you shouldn't come so often to visit only Naruto, I know why you do it, you informed me when you brought him here and all, but I'm worried the other kids will feel neglected, and they might feel jealous of Naruto-kun, they may start bullying him just because he gets too much attention from you, they are kid, they don't know who he is and I can't tell them"

"Hmm, I see your point, I guess I will have to make my visits less frequent and I shall visit every kid, not just Naruto, it will give me an escape from all that paperwork"—then Naruto's face lit up

"Hey jii jii, if you give me a place to train and learn I will give you the way to defeat paperwork"

"Come now? Do you seriously know a way?"—Naruto nodded, the Hokage was about to answer and accept but then he looked to the caretaker and was reminded of the other kids—"mmm even if I want to know Naruto, I can't just give you that, I can't play favorites like that"

"Mmm, I guess, well, I will tell you anyway since you are buying me ice cream, you could use clones, you know, I have seen some ninja use that in the village, mostly girls to carry their bags and stuff like that" _I have such a soft spot for the old man, geez, I can't just see him suffer__ like that, and I should know how bad paperwork is._

"Naruto, you don't know just how happy you have made this old man, I will buy you as much ice cream as you want today"—said Hiruzen with a happiness tear escaping his eye.

"Yay!" _great, sugar rush, just __what I need—_though the blond sarcastically.

They were to get the ice cream, Naruto got a 5 ball cone with different flavors, not that he wanted to, but he needed to fake, and it was only natural for kids to want some absurdly big ice cream, after that he asked the Sandaime to get ice cream buckets to share with the other kids, he might be an adult, but kids always held a soft spot on him, and the caretaker was right about them being jealous, at least now they would be happy, at least until they ran out of sugar, they were halfway to the orphanage when Naruto decided to make his move

"Hey jii jii"—whispered Naruto to the Hokage's ear, the old man was carrying him on his head

"What is it Naruto?"—asked the Sandaime still with a smile, he would face paperwork tomorrow, and would win!, he had every reason to be happy, at least until now

"Could you tell you ANBU to go away? I need to talk to you"—the Sarutobi's eyes widened, first of all, how did Naruto, an infant, knew that he had ANBU following them, and second, the serious tone his voice held was not natural in a kid his age

"Naruto…"

"Please, it's important"

_Could it be about the seal? Did he figure it out?_—the old man made some hand signals, the ANBU at first were confused, but when the Sandaime repeated the order they complied and left—"done, what is it?"

"Let's go to some private place, you might need to sit"

"Alright"—the Hokage walked towards a nearby park, there were still some people there, but mostly just kids and their moms, the Hokage made some hand seals and a silence barrier was placed around them

"Perfect, now I can tell you everything, listen, this is serious, I'm not as young as I appear to be, in reality I am 54 years old…"

_**58**_

_Shut up _"…I know about the Kyuubi, even though no one knows in this time line but you and my godfather, yes, I know about him too, I know who my father and my mother were, though I don't know much about her"—by this point, the Hokage was pale and his eyes were so wide he thought his orbs would pop out

"Naruto, he, you have some imaginat…"

"This is serious ojii san, listen, I was dying after a ferocious battle with a great evil that will rise in the future, and I compressed my consciousness and knowledge and gave it to Kyuubi, since he is a demon time doesn't affect him so he can in some way travel in time, he came back to the day he attacked Konoha, now listen, the attack wasn't his fault, yes, the fur ball was evil and all, but he had no reason to attack us, he was being controlled by Madara Uchiha, yes he is still alive, don't worry, I know how to defeat him now, anyway, Kyuubi went back to the day I was born and my father sealed it away within me just as he did the first time, just that now Kyuubi had with him my consciousness from the future, and released it, I know everything I learnt during those 54 years, which amounts to a lot, the reason I came back is because I am the only one who knows about this evil that will arise, and I need to prepare for that, that's why I need a place for myself, I need to start since now, Kyuubi is not evil now, and he only attacked because to defeat that bastard we will need to work together, and for that he needed to be sealed again, I still need to be better than I was, that's why I'm so insistent, didn't you find it to be weird that I shut you up when you were about to reveal my jinchuriki status? It wasn't coincidence, I was already aware of my surroundings by then"

"Naruto…that can't be…this must be a joke"

"It isn't jii jii, this is a serious matter I need to be ready, and I need your cooperation for that, I could have started a month ago, but I had to keep appearances, I will still keep the masquerade up, but I can't lose any more time"

"Who is this evil that will arise?"

_**Don't tell him anything, we can't risk a time fluctuation!**_

"Kyuubi says I can't tell you, we would be risking a time fluctuation, the only one that can know is me, I will do anything in my power to prevent things from happening, but I can't warn you of anything"

_**I never said you couldn't warn him, you can give him hints about when to be alert, but you can't let him know anything; you cannot even let him figure it out by your meddling**_

"Well, the fur ball says I can give you some warnings, just not consistent knowledge of the future, I guess I should tell you, don't slack off, you will need strength"

"Why?"

"That I can't tell, just don't slack off, leave some clones to do the paperwork, hell, hire someone to do it for you, while you train, take some SS-ranks, or S at the very least, but don't let yourself wither"

"I think I will do that"

_You better, I don't want to lose you again—_thought sadly the blond—"You better do, and please do get me an apartment, since I can't do that by myself yet, legally I'm still 4, also, I don't want ANBU following me, I won't be able to train properly otherwise"

"They will suspect about that, how about I assign some really trustworthy ANBU, everyone in the corps knows about you, but I can place some people that I will be sure won't say a word"

"Can't have that, you surely will have Kakashi-sensei, Itachi-teme, Yugao-chan and Tenzou-san watch over me, I trust them, but I don't want to freak them out, and Itachi…let's not go there, I need to be free of my guard, can't you arrange a place where I can train peacefully? Like a training ground guarded with seals? I don't want anyone seeing my training"

"I can understand that, and I could get you that training ground, but I can't let you unwatched"

"Then I will just have to leave"—stated Naruto

"Wha…What?"

"I don't want to, really, I love this village, and I want to be Hokage, seriously, but this is more important, I need to be ready and can't have anyone unveiling the truth about me"

"…Naruto…sigh, fine, I will retract the ANBU, and I will get you an apartment and the sealed training ground, you will be entering the academy right?"

"I have to keep appearances, it will be hard to go through the four academy years all over again, but it needs to be done"

"I can't believe I'm having this conversation with a 4 years old kid"

"I'm 54 if that makes you feel better"

_**58**_

_Shut up!_

.-._.-._.

**What do you know? I got another chapter down, and it was easier than my top priority story, guess that happens with every new story R&R**


	3. Chapter 3

Ch.2: The flower at the academy

It had been 4 years now since Naruto was taken out of the orphanage, the caretaker had been upset thinking that the Hokage doubted her, or that Naruto didn't like it there, but it was not like she could do anything about it.

The ANBU no longer watched over Naruto, which was confusing for the corps, Danzo of course wasn't informed of this, the least Hiruzen wanted was the old hawk trying to recruit the jinchuriki, not that he could do anything about it since the guarding seals around the training ground that Naruto used were good enough to keep any root at bay.

Since then Naruto had worked on conditioning his body and besting his chakra control as well as augmenting his chakra reserves, he wanted to start his taijutsu and bending training as soon as possible, but Kyuubi kept telling him his body wasn't ready yet.

And speaking of Kyuubi, Naruto had already redesigned the key held by Gamatora that would allow him to summon the Kyuubi and call all of its power, now the fox could get out from time to time and stretch its legs, though he mostly staid disguised as a cat.

Today was the first academy day for Naruto, and he was heading to the building, it was 7:43 a.m. classes started at 8:00, now, normally he would be in a rush, but the Hokage had been kind enough to give him an apartment near the school so that he wouldn't lose as much time going from and to, as he neared he could see other kids with their parents at the entrance, which was yet to be opened, he could already see some of his classmates and future comrades, nearest to the gate was a pale eyes girl accompanied by her father, yep, Hyuga Hinata and Hyuga Hiashi, he could see the silent Aburames, Shibi and Shino were both leaning against a wall, like father like son, not far from there were the Ino-Shika-Cho, both first and second generation, he saw Sasuke and freaked out, the guy was actually smiling, right, his clan had not been slaughtered yet, he guessed the woman near him was his mother, who was talking with Kiba's mom, Tsume Inuzuka, who was holding Kiba while he tried to free himself by…biting his own arm off? Those Inuzuka had some weird customs, those were the ones near the gate, the ones further were mostly no names that wouldn't be part of the rookie 9 and future Konoha 12, he had yet to find someone, he had already spotted all of the rookies except one of his future teammates, if things went right that is, he found her sitting far from everyone, her pink hair was too noticeable being the rarest hair color not only in Konoha but all the elemental countries.

_Man, even now I can't stop looking for her—_thought the blond staring at her

_**You never grew off your crush on her, not even after that cute Hyuuga confessed during your fight with Pein**_

_What can I say? I loved her, I still do, maybe this time I can do things right_

_**Maybe, just don't forget our goal**_

_I won't, I'm doing this for them after all, for everyone—_as he thought that he started walking towards the pinkette, he noticed something different in her though, she had bangs covering her forehead—_right, as a kid she had always esteem problems because her forehead, everyone bullied her for it, well, not during my watch_

_**Seriously? You know, you really are an old geezer, how come you are using such old fashioned lines**_

_I'm thinking them, no one is hearing me_

_**I do, and even an ancient being like me think it's old fashioned 'not during my watch' come on, you can think of something better**_

_Shut up fur ball_

_**And think of better insults as well, fur ball is no longer an insult to me**_

"Hey there"—greeted Naruto as he got near Sakura

"H…hi"

"Are you entering the academy too?"—asked him with a huge smile

_**You know, now that I think about it, this is kind of perverted, you are 62 years old for god's sake, she is a child**_

…_sh…shut up…I'm a child too!_

_**Right, you are a child when it suits you, very convenient, though childish so maybe you are indeed a child**_

"Um…ye…yeah"

"Cool, maybe we will be classmates"

"…right"

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto, what's yours?"—he extended his hand, which Sakura took

"Sa…Sa…Haruno Sakura"

"Sakura chan, nice to meet you, want to be friends?"

"Uhm…"

"You don't want to?"

"Re…really?"

"Sure, I like you, let's be friends"—after this her face took a shade of red he never knew a human could take

"Al…al…alright!"—then she pulled a Hinata and fainted

"What the…?"

"Is everything alright?"—asked a scared man standing behind Naruto, the blond looked at the door and saw that almost everyone had already entered the building

"She fainted, I think she may be sick" _Yeah right, god, was she as timid as Hinata?_

"Alright, go to your classroom, I will take her to the infirmary"

"Can I come? I don't want to leave her alone like that"

"Don't you want to go to start your lessons as everyone else?"

"I do, but I'm more worried about her"—at his comment the scared man, who happened to be Umino Iruka smiled

"Alright then, let's go"

.-._.-._.

"…ugh…wha…what happened?"—asked Sakura to no one

"You are awake Sakura-chan, good, I was worried"—said Naruto who was next to her, the pinkette's face reddened when she saw him and by reflex pulled her hair to cover her forehead

"Umn, whe…where are we?"

"The school's infirmary, you fainted and a teacher brought you here"—he then took her hands and made her release her bangs which he then moved away to let her face to be seen clearly—"you are cute; you shouldn't hide your face"—she 'eep!' 'ed when she figured her forehead was in plain sight and covered under the sheets of the infirmary's bed she was on

_**You are a sick pervert, she has 8**_

_So do I, shut up, it's not like I will take advantage of her, I just want us to be in good terms from the beginning so that when it's appropriate I can ask her out_

"Sakura-chan?"

"What?"

"Are you alright?"

"Ye…yes"

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I'm…alright"

"Ok, hey come on, let's go to class"

"What…what time is it?"

"It's around 9:00 so our second class should be just starting, come on"—she then came out from under the sheets and Naruto frowned when he saw that her bangs were again covering her face

"Wha…what is it?"—she timidly asked when she saw his frown and eep!'ed again when he removed her bangs once again

"Don't cover your face, you are cute and you shouldn't cover it"

"But…people make fun of me because of my forehead, it's too big, and I don't want people seeing it"

"You know, those people are just jealous of you, they know that behind that forehead you have a great mind, you are very smart, and that forehead makes you look even more cute"—he then went and kissed her forehead, she felt her cheeks burn when he did that—"now let's go, we don't want to be late, we already missed one class"

"I…I'm sorry about that"

"What? It's not your fault dummy, I stayed with you because I wanted to, not because you asked me or anything"

"Alright"—Naruto then took her hand and stormed out of the infirmary heading for their classroom, as they arrived he knocked the door

"Come in"—called the voice of Umino Iruka, Naruto opened the door and both walked in, Naruto still holding her hand—"oh, she is awake, good, take a seat, we are about to begin the next lesson"

"Yes sensei"—said Naruto as he walked to a pair of free seats; he heard many 'uhhh' sounds coming from different students, he again freaked out when he saw that Sasuke was part of it, he realized then that he had yet to let go Sakura's hand, she wasn't saying anything so he figured she didn't care, but then again she was still a timid girl, and she had to meet Ino first to change that, he couldn't fill the role of her best female friend

"Both of you should introduce yourselves, since you were not in the previous class"—said the teacher

"Oh right, my name is Uzumaki Naruto and watch out, I'm going to be the next Hokage!"

"He, then I wish you the best of lucks, and you?"—he asked looking at Sakura seated next to Naruto

"Uhm, my name is Haruno Sakura, and that's pretty much it"

"…I see…well, we will begin our class now"

.-._.-._.

The rest of the day was eventless, one lecture here, a taijutsu practice there, the girls had had a class for only them, the boys were practicing taijutsu at that time, when said class was over Naruto noticed a ribbon on Sakura's hair, indicating that she had met Ino after all and they were friends, for now, and if everything went right they wouldn't break that friendship over a stuck up Uchiha.

After the day was over he decided to walk Sakura to her home, she silently agreed and both walked towards her house, all the time she remained silent and with her head down, Naruto noticed a small blush on her face and guessed that she was nervous or something, maybe embarrassed

"Are you alright?"—asked the blond when they were almost there

"Uhm…yeah, I'm alright"

"You don't talk much do you? That's weird for a girl"

"What was that?"—she asked angrily; then she noticed her outburst and downed her head once more

"Hot tempered? You don't look like it; you are not like most girls are you?"—that question remained answerless since Sakura didn't respond—"hey Sakura, you shouldn't be so shy, I guess it's hard to change suddenly but it wouldn't be good if you remained that way, if you are going to be a kunoichi you should change that"—silence was his only answer as they neared her house—"don't worry, you will become strong, I know it, and I will help you"—they arrived to her house and he gave her a kiss on the cheek—"see you tomorrow Sakura chan"—and with that he walked away, leaving her with a heavy blush on her face as she entered her house

_He said I was cute and smart—_she thought just as her mother walked to her

"Oh Sakura, I was about to go for you, sorry I couldn't make it on time, I forgot to prepare dinner, was everything alright at school?"—Sakura nodded and when she did her mother noticed the blush on her face—"was there any handsome boy you would like to talk about?"—Sakura squealed at the assumption of her mother and looked away trying to cover her blush, her mother just smiled and embraced her—"alright girly, tell me everything about this young man while we wait for your father" _God, one day and she is like this, must be a r__emarkable kid_

.-._.-._.

A few weeks passed normally, Naruto was glad the teachers were not trying to ruin his taijutsu and other stuff, and Kyuubi had finally decided to get him started with the bending taijutsu styles, though he wouldn't learn how to bend yet, apparently he needed a better control over his body, which of course he lacked at this moment.

Then the day of the Uchiha slaughtering came, it wasn't publicly announced, only the adult civilian and the shinobies knew and the kids were told that Sasuke was in the hospital because he had a very strong cold, but Naruto knew better, he had pondered the option of preventing the killing of all the clan, for one he wouldn't have to worry about Itachi being in Akatsuki, and Sasuke wouldn't turn into a stuck up emo, but then again if he did that the clan would do that coup de eta they were planning, and it would make everything worse, so it was better to let thing flow the way they were supposed to and try to fix Sasuke afterwards.

It wasn't until a week after Sasuke 'got sick' that he returned to school, everyone tried to talk to him and ask if he was alright, but he just ignored them, he was a stuck up bastard already, well, Naruto would need to teach him one or two things, and if he wasn't mistaken a taijutsu spar session was scheduled for that day.

"Alright, everyone get out, we are going to do some spars today"—announced Iruka

_Great, time to kick that duckass' ass—_though the blond

.-._.-._.

"Uchiha Sasuke vs Uzumaki Naruto"—called Mizuki

_It's good that he and I are the two last of the list, we get paired for spars often because of that_

_**Right, now, I wouldn't suggest you use neither Tai Chi nor Hun Gar, they are way too slow to fight against the Uchiha style, use the Shaolin for attack and try to mix in some**__** Ba Gua holds for defense **_(AN: Tai Chi: style used for water benders, Hun Gar: earth benders, Shaolin: fire benders and Ba Gua for air benders)

_Hai Sensei!—_thought Naruto sarcastically as he positioned himself a few meters away from the Uchiha

"Ready? Begin!"—as soon as Mizuki said that Sasuke ran towards Naruto intending to give the first strike

_God, can't believe him, forget Shaolin I will only need one Ba Gua hold—_Sasuke then jumped and tried to hit Naruto with his right fist but Naruto, using his own right arm deflected his strike and positioned his left hand under the Uchiha's armpit to deliver a strike to his chest which caused the raven haired boy to gasp for air, but Naruto wasn't finished, he spun around and with his right elbow struck his opponent's neck , since he was in mid air because of his jump the strike sent him farther of what it was supposed to and took him out of the ring, all this in the span of less than five seconds

"Wo…wow, winner Uzumaki Naruto establishing a new record"—announced Iruka

"Wow, I have never seen that style before, which clan is him from?"—asked Mizuki

"He is an orphan"

"What?"—shouted Mizuki in disbelief—_can't be, how come an orphan has a different style than the one of the academy, someone must be giving him special tr__aining, this damn village is so unfair, they always play favorites, that's why I'm still a chuunin—_seethed the teacher inside his head—"alright next match…"

"Wow Naruto, way to go"—said Inuzuka Kiba once Naruto joined the group again

"He, was nothing, he wasn't focused, I think that's why I won"

"Naruto, you idiot how dare you do that to Sasuke kun?"—shouted Yamanaka Ino in rage

_God, it hasn't been even a day since his return and his fangirls are already arising, she might be Sakura chan's friend, but hell__ she is annoying—_thought Naruto—"Sorry Ino, guess I got lucky"

"Of course you did, there is no way anyone can beat Sasuke without getting lucky"

"Uhm…congratulations Naruto kun"—said a blushing Sakura who was nearby

"Geh, thanks Sakura chan"

"Sakura, how can you say that?"

"Well, he won, it's only right to congratulate him"—said Nara Shikamaru

"Shut up lazy bones!"

.-._.-._.

After that the fights continued, Naruto fought a few more times and won't using only Shaolin and Ba Gua style, he still had those other two styles but he didn't want to unveil them yet, having an extra ace in the sleeve is always good, the rest of the day Naruto could feel the glare that one Uchiha Sasuke was sending him, the last Uchiha had won his other fights, but he felt humiliated for being defeated in only 5 seconds by an orphan, the Uchiha were the best, and he needed to be better than any other Uchiha if he wanted to avenge his clan, but just now a nobody had beaten him without a sweat, he had a long way to go, and he didn't like it one bit, he needed power, why did an orphan get it instead of him?

.-._.-._.

"Hey Ino"—called Sakura to her friend, she was sitting at a park

"Oh, hey Sakura, what are you doing here?"

"I just finished my dinner and don't want to go sleep yet, hey I heard a rumor…is it true you like Sasuke Uchiha?"(Well duh!)—the Yamanaka eyed her cautiously

"Yes, why do you ask? Do you like him too?"

"Well, not that I don't, but…"—she started playing with her fingers—"…I kind of, I have someone else in mind"

"Oh, Naruto right? Well, good luck then, but why did you ask then?"

"Oh, is just that I heard that he likes girls with long hair, just so you know"

"Really? Who told you that?"—asked the blond excitedly

"I heard it from some girls at school, but I don't know if it's true"

"Great, thanks Sakura you are a good friend, hey, as soon as I know something about what Naruto likes I will tell you"

"Right, thank you"

.-._.-._.

**Didn't want to end it here but if I didn't then I would need to do a time skip and then I wouldn't be a****ble to stop until my next check point, so this chapter would be too long, anyway, next chapter a time skip R&R**


	4. Chapter 4

Ch. 3: Graduation Day

Four years passed since the slaughtering of the Uchihas, those same four years Naruto kept readying himself, at this point he was already a fine bender, his body was well prepared and his chakra control was better than it had ever been during his first life, and though it was still unknown to the Hokage, Naruto's techniques arsenal consisted of Rasengan and all its variations, including the Rasen Shuriken which he was only able to use once he entered his sage mode, that he had already mastered once more, he had the Kagebunshin, the Bunshin Bakuretsu, and many different wind ninjutsu, he couldn't summon toads yet since he hadn't signed the contract, but he was able to summon the Kyuubi at any given time, though he only summoned it to get some bending training, he couldn't get it out at the village.

His genjutsu was still his weakness, though now he was able to identify them more effectively and dispel them, his taijutsu though, was his strongest field, after his ninjutsu, but since people didn't know how many he had they classified him as a taijutsu specialist, since he had mastered four different styles and was able to switch and combine them at any given time, he had yet to lose a taijutsu match at the academy.

Currently he was still practicing the Hiraishin, but his body seemed still unfit for that technique, well, he had time so he was not that worried about mastering it yet, after all he was just an academy student, and speaking of the academy, today was the graduation exam, and he right now was standing at the gate, not really waiting for them to be opened since Iruka had already done that, no, he was waiting for someone, and he saw her running towards him, her pink hair barely noticeable in the dust cloud she lifted in her wake, as she got nearer and nearer he prepared himself

"Na-ru-to-kun!"—she shouted as she jumped and embraced him pressing their lips together

"Hi Sakura chan"—greeted Naruto once their lips separated—"let's go inside"

"Right, we must show them who is boss"  
"You are"

"Are you insinuating something?"—asked her dangerously

"Of course not"

Naruto and Sakura had been going out for a while now, the first three years of the academy they remained as friends only, but halfway through the fourth year they became an item, which was no surprise to anyone in the school since they spent a lot of time together, and while he was the favorite for the title of rookie of the year with Sasuke closely behind, Sakura held the third place over all in the academy, and not only in book smarts as was the case the first time, she was also good in taijutsu and genjutsu, ninjutsu was her weakness since her chakra reserves were not so big, but she was able to hold her own during a fight, this thanks to the fact that since the first year she and Naruto trained a lot together and the blond was one hell of a slave driver.

"You two are late"—said Iruka once both of them entered the classroom—"take a seat, we will begin the written test right now"—both of them nodded and walked to a pair of free seats

The written test was nothing near difficult, well, it was for Naruto, book smarts never was his forte, but he answered it nevertheless, he had no doubt all the group would be able to score almost everything right in this test, but most of them would be failed in the tests to come, after the written test they had the accuracy test, which all of the rookie nine got almost perfect scores, except Shikamaru who only did the strictly necessary to pass, and Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke who had perfect scores.

The next was a obstacles course which they had to cross in a set time, being 3 minutes the very minimum necessary to pass, time scored by Shikamaru of course, all the other participants' scores ranged from 2 and a third minutes to 2 and four fifths, Naruto tied with the previous record which was 1 and a half minute, Sasuke scored exactly 2 minutes, same as Sakura.

Now came the taijutsu test, in which they had to last at least 3 minutes against Mizuki, most of the participants failed in this test because lack of confidence, thinking that because he was a chuunin they wouldn't be able to stand a chance, those who passed were able to stand the whole 3 minutes, Sakura beat him instead of just enduring, though she still lasted nearly three minutes, Sasuke as well beat him in half the time, but everyone was expectant for Naruto's turn, after all, with his taijutsu styles he was able to finish his matches in less than a minute, now they wanted to see if it would work against the chuunin, as soon as the match started Naruto made his move and without giving Mizuki a chance he threw him and sent him flying towards a tree in less than 5 seconds, just as he always did.

After that, and after Iruka woke Mizuki up, they went back to the classroom where the ninjutsu test was to be held

"...Uzumaki Naruto"—called Iruka once the previous participant was done, the blond stood up and went to the front

"Alright Naruto, you will perform the three basic jutsus and if you wish you can show us any other jutsu you know and want to show if you want some extra credits"—Naruto nodded before transforming into the Sandaime then changing places with Iruka's desk and creating four kagebunshin afterwards—"Naruto, were those kagebunshins?"

"That's right Iruka sensei"

"I see, don't know how you learnt that but alright, that counts as the extra jutsu as well so you get full points and an extra credit, take your headband and go back to your seat"—Naruto did as told and went to seat next to his girlfriend—"congratulation to all of those that passed, and keep trying everyone who didn't, now, tomorrow will be the team assignation so be here early to meet your team and your jounin instructors, dissmised"

"Perfect, now Sakura chan, do you want to go have a bite?"

"Sure, your treat"

"Of course, what kind of boyfriend would I be if I let you pay? What do you want?"

"Let's go get teriyaki"

"Yes ma'am"

"Hope they team us together"

"Even if they don't I will still see you around when we are at the village"

"Yeah, but we won't be able to see each other during missions and we can't train together unless our jounin instructors decide to have a joint session, which is unlikely"

"Don't worry, we can figure something out, though it would be nice to be in the same team, after all we can be together all the time"

"I would like that"

"And I won't have to worry about you killing one of your teammates if I'm near"

"What was that?"—seethed the pinkette

"Nothing ma'am"

"That's what I thought"

.-._.-._.

"Hokage sama, here I got you the list of all the applicants that passed the exam, there is a total of 27 individuals"

"Good, nine teams exactly, we won't need to apprentice anyone, thanks Iruka, dismissed"—said the Hokage, as soon as the chuunin left the Hokage called one of his ANBU—"bring me Uzumaki Naruto"

"Yes Hokage sama"—and with that the ANBU shunshined away

.-._.-._.

Naruto and Sakura had just finished their meal, and were about to leave the place when an ANBU appeared besides their table startling both of them

"Uzumaki Naruto, the Hokage wish to speak with you"

"Umm, can you wait a minute please? Just let me pay and we can leave"

"Of course, please hurry"—Naruto asked for the bill after that and paid for the food

"I'm sorry I can't walk you home"—apologized Naruto to Sakura

"It's alright, but what does the Hokage need you for?"

"Don't really know, guess I will tell you after I know, see you tomorrow"—he said as he leaned forward to kiss her

"See you"—she said after their kiss, the ANBU then took Naruto's shoulder and shunshined away—"geez, wonder why don't they teach us that in school, guess I will have to learn it myself"

.-._.-._.

At the Hokage's office Naruto and the ANBU appeared in front of Hiruzen Sarutobi, as soon as he noticed them he ordered all the ANBU in the room to leave and then placed a privacy barrier.

"Glad to have you here Naruto"

"It has been a while jii jii"

"Well, you having a girlfriend and all you barely visit me now, and I have been taking more missions now and training as you suggested"

"It's good to hear that, you must be in top condition, specially this year"

"I see"—said the Hokage getting the hidden meaning of the message, whatever Naruto couldn't tell him about was going to happen this year—"anyway, I have called you to ask your aid with setting the teams"

"I see, so that was it"

"Yes, since you know more than me about...certain things I wish your assistance in this"

_So what do you say fur ball? Should we change the teams?_

_**As I remember it, normally the dead last is placed in the same team as the rookie of the year along with the top kunoichi, meaning that you and your vixen would be in a team with someone entirely different if you don't interfere, form the teams as they were the first time, no use changing things too much, that way you will be able to prevent the snake giving a hickey to the emo at the forest of death, that would be one less problem to worry about in the future, we already have Itachi on our backs, no need to have that bastard as well**_

_I suppose, but what do you think will happen if we change that? That's one of the major events to come, if we change it who knows what could happen_

_**I don't think it will affect that much, I think it will benefit us instead**_

_I see your point, alright then_

"Naruto! Naruto!"

"Sorry jii jii, I was thinking in whether or not change the teams I remember from the first time, what did you say?"

"Nothing, you were out a good while"

"Yeah, well, here are the teams I suggest, team 7 will be Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke and me, with Kakashi Hatake as instructor, team eight will be Inuzuka Kiba, Hyuga Hinata and Aburame Shino with Yuuhi Kurenai as their jounin, and team 10 will be the second coming of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, I guess you already had thought of that, Sarutobi Asuma will be their teacher, all the others you can place them as you see fit"

"Right"_ So that means only those three teams will pass, a shame_ "I must ask Naruto, I understand why you want Sakura to be part of your team, but I'm confused about Sasuke, you are not exactly friends"

"It's because I feel I could help him in the future"

_Read 'I must intervene in his future'_ "Very well Naruto, thanks for your help, you can go now, say hi to Miss Haruno from my part"

"I will jii jii, see you later"—with that Naruto left the office

_**Kit, remember what is going to happen later tonight, if no one is there to prevent it he will escape with the scroll, and if the snake gets it we could be in trouble**_

_Right, I almost forgot about that thanks for reminding me_

.-._.-._.

"Iruka wake up"—called a chuunin in front of the teacher's door, who woke up and groggily walked to the door

"What is it?"

"Come quickly, Mizuki has stolen the scroll of seals, we are to follow and capture him"

"What? Alright, give me a second"

After a while of waiting Iruka and the other chuunin left to search for Mizuki along all the other party assembled to do the same.

Iruka was the one who found the traitor first, but was surprised by the sight, Mizuki was covered in his own blood and all his limbs had been severed though the wounds had been cauterized, he was amazed to find out he was still alive, albeit barely, he was currently unconscious and the scroll laid besides him unharmed, the chuunin couldn't help but wonder who had done this, and how? At least they had recovered the scroll

.-._.-._.

**Here ends this chap R&R**


	5. Chapter 5

Ch. 4: Cyclops

Naruto was seated in the back of the classroom, his usual seat, with a calm Sakura resting her head on his lap while he played with her hair in a distracted way, they were the only ones in the room besides a brooding Uchiha Sasuke.

The three of them had been waiting for two and a half hours now for their jounin instructor to arrive, Naruto didn't mind, he had gotten used to it in his previous life and Sakura couldn't care less since she got to pass more time alone with her boyfriend, even if Sasuke was there, he was so silent he could be gone and it would be the same.

By the third hour the door opened and a silver haired man stepped inside the room just to feel a lot of water fall on him, unknown to the others in the room Naruto had been maintaining a small amount of water floating by the door just waiting for the jounin to release it

"My first impression of you is…I hate you, meet me at the roof in three minutes"—then he disappeared in a swirl of leaves

"Hey Sakura-chan wake up"

"I'm awake dork"

"Oh, great, then let's go to the roof"

"He said three minutes and I'm too comfy here"—she said cuddling closer to him

"Sakura-chan"

"Come on, he was late let him wait too"

"I guess he deserves that, but that would lower us to his level"

"Geez, alright, alright, let's go"—she then stood up and stormed out of the room quickly followed by the blond and then an ever scowling Uchiha

.-._.-._.

"Alright, now that we are all here we can begin, let's start with introductions, your names, likes, dislikes, hobbies and dreams for the future"

"Well, I believe that as punishment for being late it's only appropriate for you to begin sensei"—said Sakura, Naruto just smiled at this, some things never change no matter what it seems

"Alright, my name is Hatake Kakashi, I have likes, dislikes, my hobbies, I don't feel like telling you and my dreams, you are too young to know"

_Yep, some things never change_

"You go next pinky"

"My name is Haruno Sakura, my likes are Naruto-kun, flowers and my friend Ino, my dislikes are perverts and how Naruto-kun only wants to eat ramen, my hobbies are training with Naruto-kun and hanging with my friends, my dreams for the future"—looks at Naruto and blushes lightly—"I haven't thought of that yet"

_Well, I could have been worse, it could have been a fangirl, at least it seems she takes training seriously—_thought Kakashi and then pointed at Naruto—"Alright, you next spiky"

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto, my likes are Sakura-chan, training, raising plants and ramen, my dislikes are perverts, rapist and the time it takes to prepare ramen, my hobbies are training with Sakura-chan and raising plants, my dreams are to have a family and become the greatest Hokage"—Kakashi nodded

"Alright, only you are left"—he pointed at Sasuke

"Sasuke Uchiha, I have no likes and some dislikes"—he glared at Naruto—"my ambition is to restore my clan and kill a certain man"

"You could have fooled me, with all those girls following you and you ignoring them no one would think you wanted to restore your clan at all"

"Naruto-kun that's not nice, if he hasn't found a girl it's his decision"

"Well, he could try to meet some of them, who knows he could be in for a surprise, anyway, not my business"

"Damn right, it isn't"—scowled the Uchiha

"Right, you three meet me tomorrow at training ground 7 at 6:00 am for your exam"

"Exam? What exam?"—asked the Uchiha

_Then again, some things do change, the first time it was Sakura who asked_—thought the blond

"Come on Uchiha"—said aforesaid pinkette—"you can't seriously believe that the academy exam was all there is"

"She is right"—agreed the jounin—"the academy exam was to judge potential, all the jounin will be applying a final test to determine who is ready to become a genin, this exam has a 66.6% chances of failing"—at this both Sasuke and Sakura paled, Naruto remained unaffected—"so there, meet me at the place and hour I told you, and I would suggest you don't have breakfast, you will throw up anyway, see you"—and with a second swirl of leaves he left

"Naruto-kun we must prepare, I don't want to be sent back to the academy"

"Alright Sakura-chan, but first let's go eat"

"I think mom expected you today so let's go"—Naruto nodded and both left, leaving a brooding Uchiha behind

.-._.-._.

Several hours later Naruto and Sakura lied on the ground of a huge clear, the same Naruto had used for training since the Hokage arranged the place for him, they both were panting and covered in sweat, yep you guessed right, they had been training (**AN: did someone thought something else?**) in preparations for their exam the next day.

"I hope we pass tomorrow"—said Sakura worriedly

"Relax, we will do fine, we are the best of the class after all"

"True, but that leads me to another question, how did it happen? The rookie of the year is supposed to be teamed with the dead last and the top Kunoichi in order to equilibrate the teams, that means you and me would have been teamed anyway, yet Sasuke was placed in our team as well, it just seems fishy"

"Mmm I might have had something to do with that"

"What do you mean?"—asked her while turning around to face him while leaning on her elbow

"Remember that jii jii called me yesterday?"

"Oh right, you never told me what that was about"

"He wanted to consult me to see which team combinations were better, since I'm part of the class and all and we are close"

"I see, so you suggested Sasuke to be placed with us?"—Naruto nodded—"why?"

"He might be a stuck up asshole and all, but I believe he can be saved, and he need someone to keep him in line, who better than us?"

"I guess I see your point, but by placing the three top students in one team you just condemned whoever had the last place"

"It was Shikamaru, but don't worry, he had the last place just because he is lazy, I assure you he can hold his own, I may dare to bet he can give us a run for our money"

"You are kidding right? That ever sleeping slacker?"

"He might be weak physically but he is smart and that's even more dangerous, you will see some time, I can tell he will be fine"

"Alright then, if you say so, however I pity him, he is in a team with Ino-chan, and she won't let him slack off anymore"

"I don't know, when he wants to rest he can find ways to do it no matter what stands on his way"

"We should go now"

"Still worried about the exam?"—asked he with a playful smirk

"Can you blame me? I'm not as unconcerned as you"

"It's not that, it's just I know we will pass"

"Whatever, let's just go, we must wake up early anyway"

"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure, it's well known among jounin that Hatake Kakashi is always late by three hours or more, so even if he said to meet him at six he will arrive at nine at the very least, so don't worry about oversleeping"

"Are you certain?"

"I have heard many jounin confirm it while visiting jii jii" _well, not really, but I can't exactly tell her that I have already lived all this with some variants _"but we should go anyway, even if we can arrive until nine we will need all our energy, we are going to be against a jounin after all"—the blond then stood up and both of them left the clearing

.-._.-._.

Next morning found a well rested Naruto walking towards training ground 7 a few minutes before 9:00 am, on his way there a pink haired kunoichi joined him and together entered the training area, where they found a not so well rested Uchiha Sasuke waiting alone, as soon as he saw them he glared daggers to both, he had been waiting since six and with everyone arriving late he was wondering of someone had forgot to give him the memo, him, an Uchiha!

"Hey there asshole, how has been you morning so far?"—greeted the blond

"Hn"

"Yeah? Me too, anyway that sensei of ours should be arriving soon"

"It seems you were right Naruto-kun, he really is late"

"Told you, he is always late at least by three hours"

"What do you mean Uzumaki?"—asked Sasuke

"Didn't you know? Our dear sensei Hatake Kakashi is famous not only because he is a great ninja but for his tardiness too, legend says you will never see him until three hours after the appointed time"—he then shut up as a fist connected with his head

"Very funny spiky"—said Kakashi—"well, now that you are all here we can begin the test"—he produced an alarm clock from his pocket and placed it on a log, then he presented them two giggle bells—"you got until noon to take these from me, if you don't then you go back to the academy"

"There are only two bells"—muttered the Uchiha

"Very observant, one of you is going back for sure, those who get a bell will be able to eat a bento I prepared for this occasion"

_Bastard, __that's the reason he told us not to have breakfast_—thought one Sasuke Uchiha

_I'm glad Naruto talked me into eating then; I was going to miss breakfast_—thought Sakura at the same time

"I suggest you to aim to kill or you won't get a chance, now that that's clear, begin"—as he said this two of the three genin disappeared leaving only the jounin and Naruto—"you wish to try your luck with a direct approach Naruto?"

"Not really, I already know what this test is about, it's kind of obvious if you think about it, but I wish to test myself against you Kakashi sensei" _Of course having been through the same test before helps_—said the blond as his right hand glowed purple and something started to get out from the palm of his hand, where he had a storage seal tattooed

_H__e is going to use it so soon? Is that man really that strong?_—thought Sakura at the cup of a tree where she was hiding, from where she could see the clearing while frowning

"What is that Naruto?"—asked Kakashi seeing the weapon, it was a double headed Guan Dao

"This here is Baizou Ryutsume(Double Dragon Claw) and I'm going to use it to kick your ass, no offence intended of course"—as he said this he slammed one of the blades of his weapon on the ground and to Kakashi's surprise it sent a wave of rock towards him as if something was crawling under the earth, the jounin jumped to evade de attack and saw how an earth stake rose from the ground just where he had been

"You are a doton user then? I'm impressed"—commented Kakashi while in the air—_he didn't use seal__s and I sensed no chakra when he did this_

"Wrong, but you are close"—he then waved the weapon as if it were a fan and an air current was sent towards Kakashi, just before it struck the silver haired man kawarimied with a log preventing any damage, he appeared behind Naruto and hit him with his fist just for him to disappear in a smoke screen

_Kagebunshin, I heard from the Hokage that he knew this jutsu but when did he create it—_as he thought this he felt something crawling up his legs, he looked down and noticed his feet being covered with ice, he quickly ran through hand seals and with a small fireball freed himself—"wind, fire and water, and you can even make ice, I'm really impressed Naruto, you didn't even use seals" _And I still don't sense chakra, what's__ going on?_

"Thanks Kakashi sensei, but this is nothing"—he then extended the mid and index fingers of both hands and lightning started covering them

_Lightning too?—_he didn't have time to think further as Naruto shot a bolt from his finger towards the jounin who barely could dodge the fast attack, though he failed to notice Naruto already preparing to do a follow up with his other hand, when he felt the electricity get near it was too late to dodge or perform any protective jutsu, the only thing he could think of was use raw chakra to withstand the damage, the attack sent him crashing against a tree and he was barely able to stay awake—_damn, I can't let a simple genin defeat me, but no one would let me live it down if they get wind that a genin forced me__ to go all out…pride be damn I won't let this brat make fun of me_—as best as he could he stood up and pulled up his headband revealing the implanted sharingan just to see Naruto near the lake making another slash movement with his weapon, he thought another earth attack was headed his way and jumped but instead he saw a huge amount of water being headed his way forcing him to kawarimi again—_damn, I already used a lot of chakra to withstand that lightning attack, whatever it was, and now the sharingan is dra__ining me even more, I must end this soon_

"What's wrong Kakashi sensei? You seem winded, am I perhaps too much for you?"—asked Naruto from the other side of the clearing

"Dream on brat, you just got lucky" _I wish it was just that, but he really is somethin__g else_—his eyes then widened as he saw all the water the blond had commanded just a while before turn into thick mist that covered the field—"Kirigakure no jutsu? Where did you learn that?"

"This is not the kirgakure no jutsu, sensei"—said Naruto's voice, though Kakashi couldn't figure out where it was coming from—"the projected voice, I kind of use that for some minor pranks, by the way Kakashi sensei, if I were in your place I would look down"—said Naruto in a playful tone, Kakashi did so fearing more ice or something else but he saw nothing, instead he felt pain at the top of his head—"can't believe you really fell for that"—said the blond as the mist started dispersing

"I was too naïve"—said the jounin—"alright kid, let's continue this"

"Why? I already won, isn't that right Sakura chan?"—he then turned his head to the right to see his girlfriend waving two belles in her hands—"did you figure this out Sakura chan?"

"Yeah, I remembered what you said at the beginning of the fight about thinking about this and I don't remember a team with only two members in all history of Konoha besides the shodaime and nidaime, this was to test our teamwork, not really to see if we could get the bells"

"Hn"—muttered the Uchiha while walking out of the forest, his face didn't show it but he was furious, envious of his teammates and mad at himself for not getting the bells

"I see, so you really figured it out, it was no bluff, yes, this test was about teamwork, you must always remember this those who break the rules are trash…"

"…those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash"—finished Naruto and Sakura surprising Kakashi, once again, truth was that in his first life Naruto had taken this mantra to heart and now that he was back he had been telling this to Sakura every time he got a chance

"Gosh, it's as if everyone is confabulated"—said the pinkette—"Naruto-kun keeps repeating the same thing over and over again"

"Well, it's part of my nindo Sakura-chan"

"Really? Well, I'm glad to hear that Naruto, anyway, you have shown you can work as a team, though you could have helped Sasuke, and because of that you pass, see me tomorrow at six…"

"Read nine"—snickered Naruto

"…whatever, meet me to get our first mission as a team, you can have those lunch boxes over there, see you tomorrow"—and with that he shunshined away

"Uzumaki tell me where you learnt all that"—demanded the Uchiha

"Don't want too"

"What? I'm an Uchiha, tell me where you got that kind of power"

"The thing about clans, _Uchiha_, is that they are made up of more than one person, the village has spoiled you because of your bloodline, that you might awaken, not because of your name, as far as I'm concerned your bloodline is not activated so you are nothing, and even if you had it activated it would mean nothing to me, Uchiha is nothing but a name, and names don't give power"—he then started walking away, Sakura apologized to Sasuke for Naruto's rudeness and then followed the blond

"That wasn't nice To-kun"

"Sorry Sa-chan, but someone has to take him out of the fantasy he is living in, he thinks everyone must kneel to him just because of his last name, he must realize his name won't get missions done for him, if he doesn't wake up soon he will die in the battle field, I'm just trying to help him"

"I guess, but I still believe you were kind of harsh"

"If that's what it take to keep someone alive then so be it, I rather have someone hate me while they are alive than having them like me and die"

"I like you, are you telling me I'm going to die?"—said the pinkette in a clearly fake mad tone, Naruto just smirked

"You know that's not what I mean; you don't need me to wake you up"

"Yeah I know, anyway, what are we doing today now that we got the rest of the day?"

"Well, we could go and have…"

"Don't say ramen young man!"

"But Sa-chan!"

.-._.-._.

**Alright, finally had some time to write, R&R please**


	6. Chapter 6

**Shinobi Bender seems to be my most popular story so I will be updating it more often than the others from now on, that doesn't mean I will abandon my other two stories, just that this one will advance faster**

Ch. 5: Wave

"You would do good not to underestimate us"—said a blond shinobi to a wide eyed drunkard who just moments ago had been tossed to the floor by him in collaboration with a pink haired kunoichi

"Naruto!"—shouted a silver haired shinobi behind him—"you don't attack a client"

"Sorry Kakashi sensei"—apologized the kunoichi—"we had to show him that we can do the job, Naruto help the man up"

"Yes ma'am"—answered the blond as he grabbed the man by the collar and helped him to his feet again, the man was still wide eyed and seemed wary of both of them

"And Tazuna san, please refrain of saying that kind of things, I assure you that my genin are able to deal with a simple C-Rank, and if not then there is still me, I'm an elite jounin so you have nothing to fear"

"Al…alright"

"Well team, it seems we got our mission, go and pack enough for two weeks and let's meet at the south gate in one hour"

"Hai sensei"

.-._.-._.

Three hours later the group departed with Naruto taking point, Sakura and Sasuke flanking Tazuna and Kakashi behind, they had no more than a few hours on the road when they came across a puddle of water, albeit the only one, Naruto, Sakura and Kakashi recognized the poor try of deception, as soon as they passed the puddle two shinobies rose from it and attacked Kakashi, though because of their focus on the jounin they failed to notice that two of the genin charged at them, kunai in hand, and were barely able to prevent being stabbed

"Well, well, the kids want to play with the adults it seems"—commented the shinobi who had only one horn on his hitai ate

"Who says we are playing?"—asked Naruto before stomping with his foot, causing a rock to rise from the ground sending one the enemies on the air and pulling his partner with him due to the chain linking them, Sakura lost no time and stabbed the second shinobi, the first one landed and the body of his brother didn't take longer to do the same—"BROTHER!"—shouted the shinobi seeing that the man was dead—"you will pay"

"I doubt it"—smirked Naruto just as Sasuke appeared in front of the man trying to take some glory by killing him, but the shinobi reacted on time and evaded the Uchiha's attack before countering and sending him towards the blond—"damn it Sasuke"—he caught the Uchiha who scowled and freed himself

"Let me go Uzumaki"—said the heir, which made the enemy shinobi stop in his track

"Uzumaki?"

"That's the name, don't waste it"—answered Naruto before noticing the look on the man's face

"Who are you exactly?"—asked the last of the demon brothers

"Uzumaki Naruto, shinobi of the leaf"

"No, that can't be right, who are your parents?"—Naruto narrowed his eyes

"I'm an orphan; I don't know who my parents are"

"I…see, I thought maybe you…but no, they died long ago, the last one…how old are you?"

"You are a shinobi, so you should know it's foolish to answer an enemy's questions"

"Just answer damn it!"

"Naruto-kun, why is it that this man seems to know about you?"

"I don't know Sakura-chan"

"You are 13 years old, aren't you?"

"Yeah, why do you want to know that?"

"No reason, just want to know who I must ask for forgiveness for killing her son"—he then charged against Naruto but the blond wasn't unprepared and using some water he had stored in a small jug froze his feet—"what?"—he then felt a kunai aimed to his throat, held by the pink haired kunoichi while Naruto froze the rest of his body

"Now it's your turn to answer some questions"—said Naruto as Kakashi got out from a tree

"Well done team, now we can interrogate him"

"I don't see the need, he was clearly sent to kill the old man, why, I don't know, but it's clear the old man does. I wish to ask this man some questions though"

"I know what you want to know kid, I didn't know your mother, but I knew her country, they were allied with the hidden mist once, before Uzugakure, your real home village was destroyed, if my suspicions are right then your mother was…"—he couldn't finish due to a kunai piercing his head all of a sudden, the genin turned around and spotted Kakashi with his hand still extended

"What was that for Kakahsi sensei?"—asked the blond.

"I'm sorry Naruto, I can't explain it to you just yet but I couldn't let that man keep talking, I'm sorry"

"Why Kakashi sensei?"—asked Sakura

"I understand"—said Naruto

"Naruto-kun?"

"Let it go Sa-chan, I will ask jii jii when we get back, for now we have a mission to accomplish" _If not because I know already who my mother is I would be mad at you Kakashi, but I wonder why was this demon brother acting that way, I now have one more reason to save__ Zabuza it seems_

"Well said Naruto"—commented the jounin facing Tazuna—"now Tazuna-san, I believe you owe us some explanation"—the man in question couldn't help but whimper in fear

.-._.-._.

The group was now riding a boat; they had heard of the problems in wave and decided to go on with the mission, Naruto had his reasons that no one knew, not even Sakura, who agreed because she couldn't leave Wave after hearing what Tazuna said, and Sasuke decided to go on because Naruto did and he wouldn't be outdone by him

The boat took them to the chore and left afterwards, the group took formation again surrounding Tazuna, as they got nearer to the lake Naruto took out a kunai and threw it towards some bushes surprising the rest of the team, but Sakura was surprised because of two things, first was that she hadn't detected anything in that direction, and second because Naruto threw the kunai clearly wanting to fail, otherwise he could have thrown it with no one noticing, not even them.

"Naruto, what was that for?"—asked the pinkette, Naruto caught what she meant

"What would be the fun in killing the enemy like that Sakura-chan?"—he said this at the same time that a white rabbit got out from the bushes that Naruto had attacked

"Idiot"—muttered the Uchiha while smirking

"Who is the idiot Uchiha? Watch closely the rabbit and tell me what's wrong with it"

"Everybody down!"—shouted Kakashi taking Tazuna to the ground with him, Sakura and Sasuke crouched as well, but Naruto stood in the same place, the only move he did was tilt his head to avoid the blade and take it by the hilt but winced at the weight of the huge weapon and had to use chakra in order to not be dragged by the sword

_I see—_thought the blonde once he let the sword fall to the ground—_all the 7 swordsmen from mi__st had special sword, I thought Zabuza's was just normal, it appears they all have special defense mechanisms, if I remember correctly Kisame's would rip the hand of anyone who dared to touch it, Zabuza's rises its weight and only Zabuza can actually hold __it without fee__ling the weight, that explains how he can use it with one hand_

"No wonder the demon brothers died, Sharingan Kakashi, and that blond seems to be something too, I'm sorry but I will be taking the old man"—said a man while getting out of the wood, as he got near he extended his hand—"my sword if you please"

"Momochi Zabuza, the demon of the mist"—commented Kakashi

"I'm honored a famous ninja as Kakashi of the Sharingan would know about me"

_Sharingan?—_thought Sasuke and Sakura

"Enough talking, hand over the builder and you may leave"

"I'm afraid we can't do that, everyone stand back, protect the client, this enemy is on a whole other level, I will have to go all out"

"Well, if you want it that way"—he then charged at Naruto who still had Kubikir Houcho near his feet, Kakashi started moving to protect the blond from the enemy but was stunned when said blond just stomped on the floor raisin a thick stone wall in front of him blocking Zabuza's path he quickly raised a fist and struck the wall, breaking it and sending all the fragments towards the enemy, Momochi leapt backwards to avoid the attack—"well well, your genin are not pushovers, at least that blond isn't"

"Neither am I"—said a voice behind him and the nuke-nin felt a kunai press against the back of his neck

"Sakura!"

"When did you get there little girl?"—asked Zabuza

"Naruto-kun and I have good teamwork, while he is more of a head-on fighter I'm stealthier, he provides good distractions"

"I see, but you don't pay attention to your surroundings"—then the Zabuza in front of her turned water and Sakura was held by the neck from behind—"see what I mean?"

"Don't underestimate us"—then with a small poof of smoke Sakura was substituted with Naruto and not losing a second the blond bit his captor's arm provoking him to release the blond before leaping away in order to avoid several kunai thrown at him by the pinkette who now was in Naruto's previous place

"Kawarimi"

"Yep, it may be an E-Ranked, but there is no shinobi who doesn't use it"—explained Naruto still in front of him

"I see, well, I think I will have to take you all seriously _Kirigakure no Jutsu_"_—_then a thick mist started to cover the surrounding area

"Everybody be alert, Zabuza is an expert in the art of silent killing"

"He, as if a little bit of steam could stop my Naruto-kun, isn't that right foxy?"—said Sakura from within the mist, Kakashi's eyes widened when he heard the nickname and made a mental note to ask about it later…if they lived that is

"I'm on it Sa-chan"—then without warning all the mist surrounding the area turned to water and Naruto used it as a whip to destroy a clone of Zabuza that was some meters behind him about to decapitate Tazuna turning it into more water

"Hmmm, a suiton and doton user, interesting kid, and that girl is a promising assassin, too bad they will never reach their full potentials"—said Zabuza who now had his sword that he had recovered when he created the mist

"Sakura, Naruto, step aside, I will take care of everything from here, protect the client"—after that Kakashi, sharingan uncovered, charged at Zabuza and their fight started(**AN: after this point the fight is more or less like cannon so I won't bother writing it all**)

"Now it's all over Kakashi of the Sharingan, I only need to take care of the kids and kill the old man"—said Zabuza to Kakashi, who was inside a floating water sphere

"He, you forget something Zabuza-san"—said Naruto from the chore of the lake—"we are here too"—he then made a few movements with his hands and the water surrounding Kakashi freed the jounin, this took Zabuza by surprise but he had no time to react when suddenly the same water attacked him and froze rendering him immobile just as Sakura placed a chakra restriction tag on him to prevent any further fighting, then a pair of needles flew towards Zabuza's neck and a masked shinobi appeared from nowhere

"Thank you, I have been hunting him down for a long while but was unable to capture him, I appreciate your help, I will take him a dispose of the body"—the shinobi then made to get out of there but was interrupted by Naruto

"Stop!"—shouted the blond, the hunter-nin stared at him—"we must make sure he is dead"—he then made another movement with his hand and the ice covering Zabuza melted letting the nuke-nin fall, Kakashi who had recovered by now got nearer and checked for any sign of life, he shook his head

"He is dead"

"Oh I see, then I'm glad"—said Naruto and got near to them and took Kubikiri Houcho—_hmmm, since I beat him it seems the sword now accepts me, it's lighter now, too bad I won't __keep it, Zabuza still has a use for this sword_

"What are you doing?"—asked the hunter, the shinobi was afraid of what the blond might do to Zabuza, though of course it wasn't shown

"Oh, I'm just helping you"—said Naruto while patting one shoulder of the hunter—"you need his head, isn't that right?"—he crouched and took the needles from his neck—"there is no need for this anymore, here, it's no use wasting good tools like these"—he gave back the needles and stood up, then raised the sword and made to cut the nuke-nin's head, but stopped just before killing him for sure as the ninja starter growling

"Kid, bring me some sake, this pain is worse than a hangover"—muttered Zabuza, the hunter nin now seemed nervous not knowing what to do and tried the only thing that came to mind, the shinobi made to reach for Zabuza and tried to do a Shunshin to escape but found it wasn't possible

"Hm, I knew it"—said Naruto—"it was estrange you wanted to take the body somewhere else"

"A hunter is supposed to dispose of the body wherever it is, no matter if there are other shinobies near"—continued Sakura

"So that's why you placed that chakra restricting tag on the hunter as well, I was wondering about that, but now that I think about it you are right"—commented Kakashi who was willing himself to stay awake

"Yeah, so, hunter-san, care to explain?"

"Haku, what's going on?"—asked Zabuza who by now was fully awake

"Um, Zabuza-sama, the shinobies found out about everything before I could get us to a safe place"

"It seems then that we are done for, Kakashi is pretty much exhausted by now, but even so those kids are no pushovers, get out of here kid, save yourself and leave me behind"—ordered the nuke-nin to his subordinate

"But Zabuza-sama"

"I got a deal for you instead"—commented Naruto, Sakura stared at him

"Naruto, they are the enemy"—commented Kakashi

"They are on the ground, I won't attack a defeated man" _even less when his sword is part of one of the keys_

_**Of course you could always keep the sword safe and kill the man, now that you ar**__**e accepted by the sword and all**__—_intervened Kyuubi(**AN: long time since he last spoke**)

_I don't want to kill him when we could make an ally out of him_

_**Suit yourself**_

"What do you want kid? I got no money, why do you think I'm doing this?"

"I know, but I know a way we both can get benefits, this man, Gato, you know his hideout right?"

"Yes, so what?"

"Well, I figured he surely has a lot of money there, and he wants to kill Tazuna, we must protect him since he wants to help his country to get better, I was thinking that maybe getting rid of him was in order"

"I want half, but that's only if that half is the same amount he was going to pay me or more, if not I will take everything"—said Zabuza knowing where Naruto was going

"Great, now I suppose you better go back to his place and fake everything, let's meet in a week at the bridge"

"Should be enough for me and your sensei to recover"—noted the swordsman—"alright, let's go kid"—the fake hunter nin nodded as Naruto took the chakra restriction tag from them, but before they could use shunshin Naruto placed a hand over the hunter's chest, everyone was startled by this, the blond then took his hand away and stared at it

"Can't believe he wasn't lying"—muttered the blond

"Uh?"

"Eh? Oh, nothing, just some stupid crap going on in my head, sorry, you better go"

After that the pair of nuke-nins disappeared and the group parted towards Tazuna's house, Kakashi passed away right there and Naruto had to carry him, Sakura was rearing the group in case something else happened and Sasuke was behind the blond, scowling and seething, he had frozen during the battle, the mere feeling of Zabuza's killing intent was enough to disable him, he was furious at his own fears. Meanwhile Naruto had more important thought in his head

_**Can't believe it, I thought it was only something she…he said to prevent any risk of being raped but…**_

_Yeah, it's still unbelievable, Haku is actually a boy, it just doesn't sink in_

_**And you actually thought that he was prettier than your vixen, are you into boys?—**_teased the fox

_Shut up stupid dog_

_**Hey don't call me a dog!**_

.-._.-._.

**Ok, that's it for now R&R**

Naruto: he didn't deny being stupid though


	7. Chapter 7

Ch. 6: Request and Offer

"So we got a deal with Zabuza and will be raiding Gato's hideout in a week"—said Kakashi to his team of genin, they had arrived to Tazuna's home safely and were given rooms to stay, Kakashi was out all day long and didn't wake up until next day's afternoon and called his team for a meeting

"Yep, I don't think he will back off of this, he has much more to win than working for Gato"

"Let's hope it's that way, but just in case we will be training, even if Zabuza is on our side we are raiding a place full of bandits so you must be in top condition"

"Alright, so what will we be doing Kakashi sensei?"—asked Sakura

"Let me eat and get some more rest, in a hour or two let's meet outside"

"Hai sensei!"—agreed the genin and left the room

"Naruto, Sakura, you two stay here, I must have a word with you two"

"Why are you speaking to those idiots Kakashi? Whatever you are going to tell them I should know as well"—said the Uchiha

"Sorry Sasuke but you are misunderstanding, during our battle against Zabuza they disobeyed my orders, you followed order so you don't need to hear this"—said Kakashi, Sasuke smirked at this and left the room

"You are just making his ego bigger, Kakashi sensei"—said Naruto

"It wasn't a total lie Naruto, you two disobeyed, I told you to step back and protect Tazuna, but you right away went and attacked Zabuza leaving the client unprotected, although your performance during the battle was impressive you must learn what is more important"

"Well, sorry for trying to protect our comrade then"—said Sakura—"you were in trouble and we helped you, Sasuke was protecting Tazuna-san, and even while fighting we still had an eye open to the client, if you remember correctly Zabuza pulled a mist technique and Naruto still was able to protect the client from execution"

"That might be true, but nevertheless you will have to follow orders in the future, am I understood"

"We will follow orders, as long as it doesn't prevent us from helping our comrades"

"Alright, I think that's the best I'm going to get out of you, now I had two more reasons I had to talk to you, first is the deal with Zabuza, Naruto you knew where he was before he attacked us and could easily deal with him before everything happened, however you deliberately let him live and we engaged in battle because of it, care to explain your reasons?"

"You killed a man who knew about my family, he acted weird after hearing my name, I deliberately let Zabuza know we knew he was there in order to prevent him from dying, I want to ask him some things" _Alright, not the real reason but I had to tell him something _"you though, seemed fixated on preventing me from knowing about my mother so I will refrain from asking him, I just want to know if he has any idea about the weird behavior of the demon brother you killed"

"A valid reason, you realize that if he starts talking about what that demon brother was about to say we will engage in battle again?"

"I do, that's why I will refrain from asking who she was, which is what you seem to be hiding, I won't hold it against you, I know the reasons behind it"

"Alright, we will cross that bridge when we get to it, now the other reason, Sakura, during the fight you called Naruto foxy, care to explain such a…peculiar nickname?"

"Well, he has those whiskers, and his smirk reminds me of a fox, and he is a prankster, I guess it just fits"—Kakashi nodded, he wasn't sure how to feel, he could feel relieved that Sakura was still unaware of Naruto's condition, but for the same reason he could feel sad because there still existed the possibility that she rejected him because of it

"Alright, that was all; you can go now, as I said before meet me outside in one or two hours"

"Read four or five"—commented Naruto and Sakura snickered as both of them left their sensei to rest

.-._.-._.

Five hours later the whole team 7 was in a clear near Tazuna's house preparing for their training

"Alright, for this training you three will learn how to climb trees"—sateated Kakashi

"Is that a joke?"—asked Sakura

"How can climb trees help with my training?"—asked Sasuke

"Did I mention you won't be using your hands?"—he then started walking up a tree—"walking is a more accurate term than climb, you have to use chakra to stick to the log, to little chakra and you will fall, too much and you will be blown away"

"How will it help?"—asked Sasuke again

"You will improve your chakra control and will enable you to waste less chakra when using jutsu"

"I already knew all that Kakashi-sensei"—said Sakura—"when I asked if this was a joke was because I thought everyone our age would know this already, since Naruto-kun and I do"

"You know tree walking? Who taught you?"

"No one"—answered Naruto—"it was one of the exercises we did when training together, we can also walk on water and do shape manipulation, we still have to figure element recomposition, though I don't really need it" _What he doesn't know won't hurt him, and he surely doesn't need to know that I already know elemental and spatial __recomposition_—Kakashi's eyes widened by the second as Naruto said all this

"Alright, if that's true then show me"—both of them nodded and ran towards different trees and as if the most common thing in the world started walking up the log until they were upside down –"I see, Sasuke, can you do the exercise? If so then we can go on with the next exercise"—Naruto smirked at this knowing that the Uchiha had not even heard of this training, on the other hand Sasuke was seething

"No"—he finally answered frowning

"I see, very well, then you will be doing this exercise until you master it, it will help you greatly, Sakura and Naruto come with me"—Kakashi then got out of the clear, the two genin followed him leaving a angry Sasuke behind

_Damn them, how come? Those tw__o idiots, how could they surpass me, the elite—_thought the Uchiha as he started doing the exercise

.-._.-._.

"Now, what to do with the two of you?"—asked Kakashi more to himself than to the genin in front of him

"Well we could simply do our daily routine"—suggested Sakura

"And what's that?"

"Um, the usual, endurance training before sparring until we are dead tired, well, I'm dead tired, this jerk has never been winded when we practice"

"Well, that's an option, but I suppose I could also give you some jutsu to learn, I think I got the perfect thing for you Sakura, it's a genjutsu, but for you Naruto, you are a mystery to me, I can't figure what jutsu I could teach you"

"Well, I don't really need jutsu since I can pretty much do anything with my abilities, if anything I need help in the lightning department since I only have the attack I used against you during the test you gave us, and even that attack is sort of a variation of my fire abilities"

"I see"—said Kakashi while frowning—_should I? I mean, I don't re__ally know if he could use it properly, he needs a dojutsu to not suffer from tunnel vision, well, these kids are surprising as they are right now, I wouldn't put pass him to be able to do it _"Alright Naruto, you have shown that you can handle this, I'm going to teach you my one and only original technique the chidori"—Naruto's eyes widened in surprise, sure he had told Kakashi he needed a lightning jutsu, but he was expecting something more like the _Hirai_ that he had seen in his previous life, learning the Raikiri was unexpected

"Se…sensei…are you sure?"

"Why yes Naruto, I would be glad to teach it to you"—Naruto smirked

"Great!"

_**I was thinking cub…**_

_Now I'm a cub?_

…_**don't interrupt, I was saying that now that you have an alliance with Zabuza then the fight at the bridge will not happen, meaning that the Uchiha won't awaken his sharingan**_

_And that's bad how?_

_**Not that it's bad, just wondering how it will affect the future**_

_Well, without sharingan Sasuke is pretty much useless to Orochimaru so there goes one advantage, without it he can't block you, there goes another advantage…or maybe disadvantage, he won't be able to steal jutsu, there goes another, nope, I don't find anything bad about it_

_**How about his frustration? You know he is one of the possible hosts, if he is frustrated and angry then he will be an easy target for…it**_

_I guess, but without Sasuke then Orochimaru won't die and Kabuto won't modify his body so he, as other of the possible hosts would be our best option, also without Orochimaru training him Sasuke will be weaker, meaning two of the possible hosts will be weaker than our previous life_

"Naruto!"—shouted Sakura taking him out of his musing

"What is it?"—asked him startled

"We have been talking to you for a while, you were spacing out"—commented Kakashi

"Umm, sorry, I was just…thinking"

"About what?"—asked Sakura

"You know, stuff, It doesn't matter, it's not important"—Kakashi narrowed his eyes but decided to drop the subject, Sakura however was another story and glared at the blond with a look that said 'we will talk later'

"Anyway, Sakura the genjutsu you will be learning is called _Sakura no Yaiba(Cherry blossom sword)_, a very fitting technique for you, I will have to prepare a scroll for you, Naruto you and I will be training to prepare you for the chidori, I don't expect you to be able to perform it anytime soon, but I suppose we have to get started somewhere, for now you two can get started on your daily routine, I will go prepare that scroll for you and check on Sasuke"—with that Kakashi left leaving the two of them to fend for themselves

"So, what was that about To-kun, what were you and Youko talking about?"—asked the pinkette

_**I so love it when she calls me by my name**_

_She is mine, you stupid fox!_

True, no one in Konoha knew about Naruto's status as a jinchuriki, only the Hokage, Kakashi and the two loyal Sannin knew and swore secrecy, not even Naruto was supposed to know about it, though of course, being from the future helped, and he had told Sakura a while after they started dating, at first she had been mad at him and freaked out, but she came to accept it, after all the only thing that changed was that she knew, Naruto was still Naruto, the same he had always been, and the blond was grateful for this, he of course never told her about being from the future, he wasn't sure how she would react at all since that meant he was way older than here, 54 years older to be precise

"So? What's it?"—asked her again

"Nothing, we were just talking about Uchiha, you know how he is, I fear he is unstable and Kyuubi thinks the same way"

"I see, it's possible that with all that has been going on and with you and I showing off too much he might be even more of a jerk than he already is"

"But I don't think we should stop showing our skills in front of him, it might help him realize that he is not everything there is"

"I guess, let's drop this subject and get on with the training; we can't be slacking off just because we are in a mission outside of the village"

"Yes ma'am"

"Give me my weights"—asked her with her hand extended, Naruto took out a scroll and unsealed three pairs of weights, four were for him to use on his legs and arms, while the other two were for Sakura to use on her legs

.-._.-._.

"Why do you bother? You all will die anyway!"—shouted one mad Inari to the shinobies sitting on the table one day before the meeting with Zabuza at the bridge

"Why are you so sure?"—asked Naruto unfazed by the outburst

"Because no one can beat Gato, he will just kill you"

"Gato is only one pathetic man with confidence issues that tries to bury his problems with money while hiding behind his thugs"

"Yeah? And what would you know? You surely have had a sweet and comfortable life so far"

"Well, you are saying that to an orphan that had to fend for himself all his life, I admit my life before becoming a shinobi wasn't so bad, I had Sakura-chan, but you too should understand that we are shinobies, and that means we risk our lives to succeed in a mission, we will put our very existence on the line, isn't that right Kakashi-sensei?"

"In essence yes, as shinobi we are always faced with death, and the worst that Gato has is another shinobi by the name of Zabuza and he is on our side now so I wouldn't worry that much"

"You are all going to die"—muttered the kid and then left upstairs

"What happened to him?"—asked Sakura, Tazuna sighed

"There was once a man here at wave by the name of Kaiza, he was like a father to Inari, and when Gato came here only Kaiza faced him and Gato killed him in front of everyone to make an example of him"

"I see, well I'm not surprised Inari thinks that way then, but there is a major difference between Kaiza and us"—commented Naruto—"we stick together and together we will defeat Gato, Kaiza never had anyone to support him, you people let him face Gato alone, if you had followed Kaiza's example then nothing of this would have happened, I truly feel sorry for Kaiza's memory, no one here honors him, all the people of this country cowers instead of fighting, if something is truly important to you then you protect it, even if you lose your life, you defend it with everything you have with your two arms"—said Naruto rising his arms to make emphasis, Tazuna and his daughter's eyes widened at his words and a sniff was heard from the stairs, Naruto stood up and went near the stairs to see Inari crying just at the top—"if you are afraid you will lose your life then you will never do anything and at the end when you die from old age you will regret your hesitance, true strength exist"—at this Sasuke paid more attention thinking that he was about to reveal the secret of his power—"true strength comes from protecting those you care about, your loved ones"—and with that Naruto walked away and left the house, Sakura stood up and followed suit

"Why did he left?"—asked Tsunami confused

"Truthfully I don't know, he didn't seem upset or anything"

.-._.-._.

"To-kun?"—called Sakura once she reached Naruto near the lake

"Oh, hey Sa-chan?"

"Are you upset for something?"

"Not really, why?"

"Nothing, just wondering why you left"

"To give a more dramatic end to my speech, that and I'm waiting"

"Waiting for what?"

"You will see"—Sakura then sited besides him and leaned on his shoulder while he caressed her hair, a while after the door of the house opened again and there stood Inari who got near them

"Yes Inari-san?"—asked Naruto

"I want to be strong"

"Yeah? So?"

"Please help me"—Naruto smirked

"This is what you told me I would see?"—asked Sakura

"Yep, why do you want to be strong Inari?"

"I want to get rid of Gato, I want to protect my mom, my grandpa and everyone here"

"Sorry, we are going to take Gato tomorrow, and I can't make you strong in that short time"

"Doesn't matter, I want to protect my family, and everyone else"—Naruto looked at the kid in the eyes and saw the same determination he held

"Well said Inari, but I'm afraid there are some problems, I don't have inconvenient in training you, but I can't stay here just because of that, after this mission we will leave to get back home, if you are still willing to become strong then you could come with us"

"Naruto!"—exclaimed Sakura with wide eyes

"What? It's his decision, I'm not dragging him or anything, besides I'm not saying he should become a leaf shinobi, he can come back whenever he wants"

"Leave mother and grandpa?"—asked Inari worried

"It's up to you kid, you don't need me to become strong you know, but if you still want my help I'm afraid I won't be staying here for you"

"I…"

"Hey, you got until your granda finish the bridge to decide"

"…"

"We need to go to rest now Sa-chan, we must be on top condition tomorrow to get rid of Gato"

"Alright Naruto-kun"—then the both of them went inside the house, Inari staid a while longer, staring at the sky before going back inside too

.-._.-._.

**That's it for now, I said I was going to update this mor****e often because its popularity, didn't I? there is a poll in my profile to decide these things, if you rather have me update other story faster, then you should be there voting right now, R&R**


	8. Chapter 8

**It's time to answer some questions**

**Q: Will Naruto be able to enter into Avatar mode?**

**A: **No, it was stated in the ATLA series that the Avatar mode is achieved by all the souls of the previous avatars combining and giving their power to the current avatar, the chain that Aang was port of broke and the avatar ceased to exist, Naruto could be considered the first link of a new chain, meaning he doesn't have any previous soul to gain power from

**Q: Will Naruto's powers pass on to his descendants or will they appear on other individuals when he dies?**

**A: **Since there are not other benders then there are not other individual who could gain Naruto's powers when he dies like it happened with the avatars, it will pass on his descendants like a bloodline, not that I plan on going that far ahead

**Q: If Naruto won't train Inari to become a ninja then what will he teach him, politics?**

**A:** Naruto said that Inari didn't have to become a Konoha shinobi, not that he wouldn't train him like one, and besides, there is still bending XD

Ch. 7: Raid

"We will be leaving now"—announced Kakashi to Tsunami and her son while he, his team and Tazuna were by the door

"I will leave a pair of kagebunshins to protect this place, Gato might try something if he knows we are not here"—said Naruto as he created two clones

"Very well, let's go"—and with that the four of them parted

.-._.-._.

"Where are my workers? They are late"—asked Tazuna once they arrived to the bridge which was covered by mist

"No, they are already here"—commented Kakashi, the old man focused his gaze and could see his workers within the mist knocked out

"W…what happened to them?"

"I had to knock them out, they were making a ruckus when they saw me"—said Momochi Zabuza making the mist disappear—"if they made any more noise they could attract Gato's attention and we don't need that, they are not dead, they will wake up in one, maybe two hours"

"So, are we ready?"—asked Naruto

"Gato thinks I'm attacking the old man right now, and Haku heard some of the asshole's thugs say that he was planning on killing me afterwards, we just need to wait for him to present himself"

"I see, we will have it even easier this way"—commented Kakashi—"Tazuna-san I would suggest you to hide while we take care of everything here, Naruto, could you please take the workers to hide as well?"

"Sure, no problem sensei"—he then performed the Taju Kagebunshin and made as many clones as there were workers appear, the clones then went and took one worker each

"So how much do you think we should wait?"—asked Sasuke

"Who knows?"

"Mmm, by the way, where is Haku?"—asked Naruto

"He is observing from a safe position and will provide long range support"

"I see, well, Gato should be taking much longer to arrive, my clones at Tazuna's home just dispelled themselves, two of his thugs tried to capture Tsunami and Inari but they have been taken care of"

"Are they alright?"—asked Sakura

"Yeah, the thugs became frozen statues before they could do anything"

"I was talking about the thugs"

"Ah, then no, my clones broke them after freezing them"

"Kid…you are an artist"—said Zabuza

"What's the meaning of this!"—shouted a screeching voice, everyone turned their head to find an angry man

"Hey Gato, what are those guy behind you for?"

"Zabuza! Why haven't you killed Tazuna?"

"Oh well, there was a change of plans, I got another victim"

"I see, well, I was going to get rid of you anyway"—he then snapped his fingers and the thugs behind him charged at the shinobies

"Whoever kills more wins!"—shouted the demon of the mist and charged at the enemies

"Damn, Sakura-chan let's go!"—said Naruto and charged at the thugs too with Sakura following him not long after

_I won't be outdone by those idiots—_thought Sasuke and followed them, Kakashi sighed and he too went into attacking

To make a…short…story, even shorter, it was an absolute massacre with five shinobies attacking and the occasional senbon flying through the sky, and just after one single minute all of the thugs were dead

"So"—said Zabuza calling everyone's attention—"I got sixty, how many did you get?"

"60 too"—announced Kakashi

"Sixty"—said Naruto and Sakura at the same time

"Same here"—said Sasuke though he looked sick

"Hmm, I see, well, there is still Gato to decide the winner"—said Zabuza, and as it sank in he ran towards the man before the others, the little man was so frightened he couldn't move, and seeing a person, let alone five, that had just killed hundreds in front of him saying they were after you now didn't help at all—"your ass is mine Gato!"—but before he could swing his sword and cut the pathetic man a rock rose from the ground just where Gato was and sent the man through the air, Zabuza looked upside and spotted his victim but his view was soon blocked by a bunch of flames engulfing the man, his screams could be heard immediately, the demon of the mist looked behind him and found Naruto with his right fist extended with fire erupting from it—"you use Katon too?"—Naruto stopped using the fire revealing a still alive Gato who soon fell to the ground, before he could touch it though several kunai pierced him thrown by the blond

"Yes, you could say I can manipulate any element"

"That's one hell of an ability kid, how did you manage to keep him alive within the fire"

"I didn't make it that hot, and I didn't maintain the attack that long, just enough to make second grade burns"

"Ouch, that's worse than third grade"—commented Kakashi

"I repeat it kid, you are an artist"

"How so?"—asked Sasuke, fire was his affinity and his clan's, anything he could learn about it could be of help, though he still looked sick

"Fire hot enough to make third grade burns can kill easier, but it burns the nerves and the victim doesn't feel pain for long, second grade burns though, they don't kill that easy but they don't burn the nerves and the victim feels the pain all the way until the end, if your goal is torture then second grade is your aim"—explained Sakura—"Naruto-kun, you are a sadist"—scolded her

"Oh but he deserved it for all that he has done to this country and you can't deny that Sa-chan, now let's stop this talking and head for his base, he could still have some more guys there"

"I don't think so, he doesn't like to leave his things to anyone other than himself, surely he brought every thug he had with him"

"Anyway, we should get going"

.-._.-._.

"I can't believe he had one here"—muttered the blond to himself forgetting that there were others with him at Gato's hideout basement

"What was that Naruto-kun?"—asked Sakura getting closer to him to see what he was staring at, it was a large sword a lot alike to the one of Zabuza but it didn't have holes and it was round at the end

"It's one of the seven"—muttered Naruto again to himself—"I have…looked for it at it has been here all along"

_**WARNIG!—**_shouted the Kyuubi inside Naruto's head—_**you are about to reveal too much!**_

_What?—_asked Naruto still distracted

_**PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT YOU SAY IDIOT! YOU ARE ABOUT TO REVEAL YOU ARE FROM THE FUTURE!**_

"Naruto, what are you talking about?"—asked Sakura again

"Nothing Sakura-chan, sorry it's just I was distracted"—he then took a scroll from his kunai holder and sealed the sword within it making sure no one else had seen him, though he suspected that Kakashi had been paying attention to him since he started muttering—"I will tell you later Sa-chan"—Sakura glared but still nodded at him and they continued their raid on Gato's vault

.-._.-._.

"Well, it seems we are done here"—commented Zabuza, Haku besides him

"Yes, you got your half so I guess we are good"

"Better than I could have ever been working for that scum"

"We must stay here until Tazuna finishes his bridge, you can stay with us until then"—suggested Kakashi

"No, we have no business here any longer so I will take my leave tomorrow morning, I think I will be staying in one of the very comfortable rooms Gato had in this place"

"I think that works as well, we will leave now, come on guys, let's go"

"You go ahead Kakashi-sensei, I would like to have a word with Zabuza-san"—said Naruto

"Naruto, you know that…"

"I know, I will ask jii jii about that, but I would like to know some stuff about the behavior of the demon brother"

"Why would I need a word with you kid?"—asked Zabuza

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto, does that ring any bell?"—Zabuza's eyes widened

"Uzumaki? Are you for real?"—Naruto nodded

"Are you the son of…"

"Don't tell me any names please Zabuza-san, my sensei seem fixated on hiding some things from me, I just wish to know why the demon brothers acted strange after hearing my name"

"I see, as you know I and the demon brothers come from Kirigakure, and as you might not know there was once a hidden village named Uzugakure, our villages were allies, and your last name is the same of their major clan, that would be the reason behind their behavior, but Uzugakure was destroyed long ago"

"I see, well, now I know a little bit more about myself, thank you"

"No problem kid, hope you get to know more soon, it's a shame to live without knowing your past"

"Thanks Zabuza-san, what will you use that money for?"

"Oh just to finance another rebellion against the Misukage"—everyone's eyes widened at the revelation, not only because of the statement but because of the way he said it too, as if it was nothing—"that bastard that started a civil war in our country because his fear to bloodlines, he must die for his crimes"

"I see, then this might help"—said Naruto and gave him a scroll

"What's that Uzumaki?"

"Just something not of your concern Uchiha"

"Alright you two, that's enough, we must go now and keep guarding Tazuna"—ordered Kakashi—"let's go now, good luck Zabuza"

"Same to you lot"—and with that both he and Haku disappeared in a splash of water, team 7 left after that

.-._.-._.

"What's in the scroll Zabuza-sama?"—asked Haku to his master once they were inside Gato's hideout once again

"Let's find out"—he then opened the scroll and found several storage seals, he activated the first and four tags were revealed along a letter, the mist nuke-nin took the letter and read

_These tags are special seals that will prevent HIM from escaping through any means, including his vortex thing, you just need to write his name on the reverse_

Zabuza's eyes were like plates when he finished, how did the kid know about that ability of the man? Curious and expectant he quickly activated the next seal, another scroll appeared and he opened it

_He might be intangible for a few seconds, but he is not inexistent and his technique wears out after a short while, if you maintain the sword through him for enough time he is done for, and he can't attack you while in that state, in this scroll are other useful tips against the man_

The demon of the mist was now sweating bullets, this couldn't be; the kid was too well informed about the man, how and why? Just who was that kid?

"Zabuza-sama? What does it mean?"—asked Haku

"The kid, he is amazing, I surely hope not to find him as an enemy ever again"—commented the demon of the mist—_Naruto you might have given me even more than you think_

"What's on the other seals Zabuza-sama?"

"I fear what I might find out now kid, but it would be foolish not to"

The man kept unsealing things from the scroll, he found many useful things in it, like a tag for himself that expelled any outer chakra from his body that could help against the Tsukuyomi, mostly there were stuff to fight against any sharingan user that Naruto had developed in his later years during his first life, at the final seal he only found a letter directed at him with instructions to read alone, he sent Haku away and started reading

_You might not show it, but I know you consider him your son, you should stop your foolishness and show him that you don't see Haku just as a tool, you are going to fight one of the strongest shinobies there exists, if you die without ever telling him you will regret it all your afterlife, just try to imagine your life without Haku and you will figure it out, a father will regret never telling his son 'I love you'_

Zabuza crumpled the letter and quickly destroyed it, it's not that he was mad at Naruto, it was not that he didn't love Haku, it was just that he was not a very emotional guy and doing things like those wasn't him, but after imagining his life without the kid he really found himself mourning that life, he called Haku again and to the kid's surprise as soon as he entered he was pulled into a quick hug by the man and was just as quickly released

"Sleep well Haku"—he sealed everything Naruto had given them and left for a room in the hideout—_you really have given much Uzumaki Naruto_

_Did…he just called me…Haku? That…that was a first, he has always called me kid, what happened?_

.-._.-._.

The weeks passed and after a month the bridge was finished at last, the shinobies had not have much action since then and focused in training while doing brief guarding rounds, all in all the mission had gone quite well if Kakashi would say so, now they were on the finished bridge about to leave with the whole town wishing them a good travel

"WAIT!"—shouted Inari's voice from behind them all, everyone turned around to see the boy panting hard and with a backpack—"I…I want to go with you"—said the kid

"What?"—asked his mother in disbelief

"Mom, I asked Naruto-niisan to help me become strong, but he said he couldn't stay, that he wouldn't refuse, but that I would need to leave with them if I wanted his help, mom, I want to be strong, I want to be able to protect you and grandpa, so I will be leaving with them"—Tsunami just stared at him with horror printed all over her face, then she turned her head to Naruto

"You! You put that idea in my kid's mind! How dare you take him away from me?"

"Tsunami, dear please"—soothed her father—"Inari said that Naruto didn't force him, it was his own decision"

"But…"

"Mom, I will come back, maybe in a few years, but I want to go with them and become strong"

"Naruto, is it true that you offered him your help?"—asked Kakashi

"He asked, I didn't say no"

"Please, take me with you"

"Inari, son, please think this over"—asked his mother

"I have mom, for the past weeks I have been thinking about it, Naruto-niisan will you help me?"

"I won't deny anything, but you are still a kid and must hear your mother, not me"—Sakura then punched him on the head

"You are a kid too, don't act all high and mighty"—scowled the pinkette

"Yes ma'am"—said him with a grin on his face

"Mom please, I don't want to cower down like I used to, I want to be able to protect everyone, that's why I want to go with them"

"Inari please"—cried Tsunami

"Dear, try to understand your son, I know you want to keep him with you, but he wants to do this, it's his own decision"

"But dad, I'm his mother, and he is only a kid"

"A kid old enough to be sent to the shinobi academy"—answered Tazuna—"it would be the same, and he promised to come back"

"Mom, I won't abandon you, I promise I will come back to you"

"Inari…"—she then turned to Naruto—"will you send him back to me?"

"As soon as I deem him ready to look after his own training, and I don't think it will take long, Sakura is witness that I'm a slave driver, he will be back in a short time, besides, Sakura will help, that's two teachers for him"

"Oh no young man, you got yourself into this, you keep me out of it"—said his girlfriend

"Alright, one teacher, but even that is more than what most get"

"I will look after him as well"—promised Kakashi—"if that helps you feel any better"

"Al…alright then, but Inari, promise me you will write daily"

"Mooom!"—he started but his mother sad look shut him up—"alright, I will write you every time I can"

"I will see to it that he writes everyday"—said Naruto—"trust me, after a while you will miss her and you won't need me reminding you to"

After that the group said their goodbyes and left

"How will you name the bridge dad?"

"I was thinking on something like the great Tazuna bridge"

"How about hope bridge, after all this is the new beginning of our country"—suggested one of the crowd

"I like that, then that will be its name, the hope bridge"

.-._.-._.

**That's it for now, see you later R&R**


	9. Chapter 9

**As you might have already read in my most resent chapter of 'Werefox' I got my laptop back but it has the keyboard totally f*cked up, so I had to get a provisional USB keyboard while I get the money necessary to get my laptop's substituted, the thing is, this provisional keyboard is damn uncomfortable! So, if you at some point notice any mistake I will ask you to please breath three times, calm yourselves and point the mistake politely so that I can fix it up, please bear with me T.T**

Ch. 8: Cornered down

"So, let me get this straight"—said the old man Hiruzen Sarutobi to the group in front of him conformed by one of his elite jounin, one Hatake Kakashi, the three gennin under his command and a boy he had never seen before—"you not only kept going with a mission of a higher rank than what you were given, you let an A-Rank nuke-nin get away, you worked alongside him and his companion, you also killed the owner of one of the worldwide most important shipment companies, I can't blame you since he interfered with the mission, but you as well brought a boy along with you, a civilian, you plan to train him and expect me to not make him a leaf shinobi just so that he can go to his country? Where he could possibly initiate a hidden village himself with the secrets he gets from you? I don't know what to say, but I must ask, are any of you OUT OF YOUR FREAKING MIND?"—shouted the man startling all the shinobies in front of him, and Inari was right down afraid of the man, Naruto however remained unfazed

"But of course I'm out of my mind! Do you know how dark is in there? It's creepy"—stated the blond boy with the most carefree tone he had, Inari couldn't help but snicker at this, Sakura as well but she at least tried to hide it

_**Funny, last time I checked this place was sunny**_

_I wouldn't know I haven't entered there since a long while ago_

"Do you think it's funny Naruto?"—asked the man, though he knew that Naruto had his future knowledge, and this probably was a plot to prevent some event that was to come he couldn't help but worry at the amount of paperwork he would need to do in order to pull this out

"Somewhat funny, yeah"—meaning 'whatever you say I will keep on with this'

"Sigh, Naruto are you sure of what you are doing? I mean if you want to train someone then I won't stop this, of course it won't be official since you are just a genin and you can't legally have an apprentice, it's your problem if you want to use your time that way, but it has to be your time, I won't allow you to neglect your shinobi duties just to train a boy that, after all, won't be a Konoha shinobi"

"I'm sure I can pull it out, don't worry, I won't neglect my duties, you can be sure of that"

"Are you serious Hokage-sama?"—asked Kakashi—"I mean, I agreed because I was sure you wouldn't allow this and you would send Inari back, do you seriously approve?"

"Yes Kakashi, I have no problem with this as long as Naruto still complies with his obligations, and Naruto, that means you won't ditch your training with your team either to train the kid"

"And you can't neglect me either"—said Sakura—"you will have to take me to dates too"—the Hokage smirked at that

"That too, I can't let you hurt miss Haruno now, can I?"

"No problem at all"—commented the blonde

"Just how do you plan to do all that Uzumaki? Let me remind you a day has only 24 hours"

"Oh, little old teme is worried about my well being"—mocked Naruto

"I dare you repeat that Uzumaki! See how well you fare without your tongue"

"I will do well enough, and I will train Inari as I promised"

"Well, this is settled now, I don't see any need to keep you here, you are dismissed"—said the Hokage tired of hearing all this, the shinobies and Inari bowed and left while Naruto stayed

"Naruto, you coming?"—asked Sakura, Inari, hearing this, turned around to look at his teacher

"In a while Sakura-chan, you go ahead I will reach you later, you too Inari, wait for me downstairs please"—Inari nodded and got out of the room while Sakura took a while longer to do so

"Alright Naruto, I have remained silent so far, what is all this about?"—asked the Hokage after doing a privacy jutsu

"Inari? He is a good kid, and I will prepare him for what is to come, in my previous life he was a friend of mine though I never offered to train him like I did now, because of that he was unable to protect his family and his country properly, everyone died, and I mean everyone, I won't allow that to happen again, also, he is somewhat of a contingency plan, in case I'm not strong enough to prevent things from happening by the time they occur, he will be the second line of defense"

"What is to come, what is to come, that's all I have been hearing from you all along, I'm tired of your riddles Naruto, I hate to pull rank on you but I order you to explain"—said the man with a heavily severe tone

"…alright, I would disobey your orders _Hokage-sama _but seeing as I remained a Konoha shinobi until the day I…came back, I feel proper to still follow the rules" _Well, I never deflected and even wh__en it was destroyed for sure I remained loyal—_thought Naruto, he then took out a scroll and unfolded it to reveal a storage seal, he activated it and with a poof of smoke a sambakuto appeared, the same he had found in Gato's lair—"this is one of the seven swords of the seven swordsmen of the mist, I'm not sure whose nor which one it is"

"Then how can you be so sure about it?"—asked the old man

"Because I feel the demon inside it"—at this information the Hokage's eyes widened

"What? What do you mean?"

"I better approach this from another point, I know for certain that the bijuus are not the strongest beings that reside on this planet, I should know, after all it was the strongest which brought this planet to destruction and the main reason I came back"

"A being stronger than the bijuus? How is that possible?"

"Stronger than all of them, together, this being is called Yami, and it's sealed inside the core of the planet, the worst part is that at this time there is only one, but at one point there will be two, one free and one sealed, but who knows for how long, anyway the one that is sealed, and the only one at this moment, is held back by four keys, though the keys are no longer complete, the first and weaker key, the fake god Jashin"—Sarutobi's eyes widened even further now—"At the moment Yami was sealed Jashin was not a bloodthirsty being, he was good to some extend and feed from the happiness of people, don't get me wrong, that was bad as well because the result was sorrow to his victims, but it was better than feeding from human blood like he does now, but being the first key, he was closer to Yami and therefore was influenced by him, resulting in what Jashin is now, the second key is this"—he pointed to the sword between them—"or more precisely the seven demons that became afterwards the seven swords of the mist, as far as I was concerned two of the swords had already been destroyed, so the second key is weakened already, this is why I will ask you to hide this sword in a place you are sure no one can find it ever, Zabuza, the nuke-nin we found before has another and I'm sure that as long as he has it, it will be secure, another one is held by a nuke-nin that I will face sooner or later named Kisame, I will take his sword no matter what and protect it as well, the other one I know of is in hands of the last loyal of the swordsmen"

"I understand, so it's vital that we find out where the others are"—commented Hiruzen, Naruto nodded

"Yes, we must protect as many of those swords as we can, the third key is already weakened by half its power, so I can't do much about it but try and protect the other half of it"

"What's the third key?"

"The four cardinal guardians, Seiryu, Byakko, Genbu and Suzaku, Seiryu and Suzaku are dead, Genbu is still around and is in fact the 'real' boss of the snakes and the turtles summon, this information can't get out you understand? If Orochimaru gets wind that he has such power who knows what he might do"—the Hokage nodded—"I trust Gai but he can't know either, as for Byakko, he is hiding and I'm not sure of his current state, though I know where he was hiding at some point, I will soon try to contact him and sign a contract in order to watch over him, he is powerful but I can't take risks"

"When do you plan to do that?"

"I wasn't planning on telling you, but if you must know I was going to leave tomorrow and leave two long lasting kagebunshins behind, one to train with my team and one to train Inari, now that you know I will ask you to take these"—he took out two tag seals—"these seals I created are called charge tags, you fill them with chakra and put them on a kagebunshin and it will last until the chakra stored in this tags runs out, I have been filling two of these since I left for the mission of Wave, once I place them on the clones they should last around a month, but in case I'm not back by then I will ask you to replace the tags with these, which you will fill yourself"

"Alright, I guess I can do that, how will I know you are back?"

"I will report to you of course"

"And the last key?"

"The last key is myself, and my fellow jinchuriki, originally it was Juubi, the ten tailed beast, which the Rokudou Sennin sealed into himself and afterwards the moon, the nine bijuus you know today are in fact part of Juubi, so they became the fourth key, and we the jinchuriki took their place"

"But you said the keys were incomplete, if what you are saying now is true then the last key is complete"

"I won't go into details, but I will tell you that an organization called Akatsuki was responsible for the breaking of the fourth key"

"Wait a second, if you are part of the fourth key and you remained until the end then how come this Yami was freed?"

"It wasn't, you see, the first key, Jashin has one remaining disciple that feeds him and keeps him strong, but he will die and therefore Jashin will be weakened, the seven swords will be broken all but one, the third key is already weakened and the fourth will be soon if we don't destroy Akatsuki, the four keys weakened will let some of Yami's power to leak from the seal and it will corrupt one of three possible hosts, I'm taking measures to weaken two of them already, the third one though is strong as it is, I can only hope for him to not be the host in case I fail to empower the keys"

"Empower them, you mean you didn't come back to defeat Yami?"

"Not at all, it's futile to try that, Yami is just too strong, I came back to make sure his power can't get pass the seal"

"Nonsense, then why are you training Inari if it's futile to fight back?"

"In case I can't prevent it Kyuubi will take all my knowledge and give them to Inari while I will sacrifice myself and become a new key while Kyuubi becomes another, restraining Yami long enough for Inari to create new keys, as I said, Inari is a contingency plan, I don't like the idea of not living, I would love to share my life with Sakura and have a family with her, but if I must I will become a sacrifice once again"

"Naruto…"

"You don't have to say anything, just help me as much as you can and I will be happy, and if given the opportunity, don't hesitate to kill Orochimaru and burn his body, that way we weaken more two of the hosts"

"Two?"

"I can't give details, remember, just make sure of not hesitating at all, kill him at the first opportunity"—and with that he left the room

.-._.-._.

**Just one big conversation but well, at least now I have taken care of explaining things further**


	10. Chapter 10

Ch. 9: Byakko

At some mountain inside Tsuchi no Kuni, a few miles away from Iwagakure.

It had been a week since Naruto left Konoha on favor of his search for the sacred beast, in his previous life he had worked along some Iwa shinobies nearly the end of the fourth war initiated by Madara and had discovered this location with clear signs that Byakko, the west guardian, had been hiding there for some time, unfortunately the tiger wasn't there anymore since who knows how long, nevertheless this was the only lead he had to the beast so he could only hope for him to be there.

Unfortunately for him not long after he crossed Tsuchi's border he was intercepted by a group of Iwa nin and through some rehearsed lies he ended up hiring a genin team to escort him through the mountain, which was a problem since he couldn't have Iwa knowing about his plans. Fortunately he came prepared and along the journey he had been volunteering to cook every time they stopped claiming to be an excellent cook, which wasn't far from reality, this way it wouldn't be weird when he feed them a drug to knock them out for three extra hours, time more than enough to go find out if his journey wasn't in vain.

"We are almost there"—announced Naruto to his entourage, though they knew him as Tarou Muuzika

"I'm sorry Tasou-san, we know you want to get there fast, but it's dark already and continuing would be dangerous at this height, I'm afraid you will have to wait until tomorrow to look for your family heirloom"—said the jounin instructor, who happened to be a kunoichi he met back at the war, her name was Akatsuchi

"Oh come on, it's not that high"—he then looked down the border of the mountain and frightened—"al…alright, it might be a little high after all"

"We will have to camp right here, we can't advance anymore today"

"Good thing we packed some lumber before we arrived to the mountain, there is no way we can find any here"—commented one of the gennin

"Tarou-san, will you cook today too? Your food is great, and I don't really feel like eating whatever my teammates cook"—said another kunoichi

"He, alright, I think I can do it"

After dinner all the shinobies, except Naruto, were out cold because of the drug the blond fed to them, as soon as he made sure they were not faking he left and climbed further into the mountain, he soon found a huge cave near the top, he was about to enter but he stopped as he heard a roar coming from inside, he smiled, Byakko was there, but his smile soon faded when he heard another roar followed by the sound of metal hitting stone.

_What the hell?_

_**Maybe you should go inside, who knows, he could be in trouble**_

_Right!_

The blond stepped into the shadows of the beast's den and followed deeper into it following the sound of battle and the roars of the beast. After a while he found an area illuminated by fireflies and some weird crystals, another roar pointed him to where he had to go, the next area was illuminated as well and he finally found the large feline, but as he expected because of the noise he was not alone, a small figure was in front of it, a male teenager, Naruto couldn't tell from where he was but the kid was tall and had jet black hair, he couldn't see his eyes, his robes were blood red and he was holding a double edged scythe, while Naruto was scanning the invader the teenager made to attack the tiger again, Naruto now noticed the numerous gashes and blood covering the animal and was surprised, Byakko was supposed to be invulnerable to physical damage, how was he hurt? Whatever the case he decided to push the thought away and help the guardian, it would do no good if he died.

As the enemy did to attack Byakko again Naruto jumped down to where they were fighting aiming to get the attacker with a kick on the head, but the teenager sensed him a turned to block the attack with his scythe, it was then that Naruto saw his eye, which were pure black and had a wicked smile pasted on the face, the guy deflected him and made to attack Byakko again, but Naruto's interruption was enough to give the tiger time to make a move, a wave of wind entered the cave and pushed the teenager against a wall, Naruto decided to take advantage of this and kicked the ground making a pair of huge stones rise from the ground and trap the enemy, both the blond and the tiger let out a sigh of relief.

"**I don't know who you are human, but you helped me and I thank you, but there is something weird about you, your aura, you are more than what it seems"—**said the tiger just before they heard a clacking laugh—**"now you, why did you attack me Jashin?"**

"JASHIN!"—shouted Naruto—"you mean this is the fake god!"

"**You know about him? Oh well, doesn't really matter"**

"Doesn't matter? Are you nuts? The first key was attacking one of the remaining parts of the third and you say it doesn't matter?"—once he let out the question both Byakko and Jashin shut up

"He, the ningen knows a lot, does he? Who are you ningen and how come you know about us, hmm?"—asked Jashin still trapped with the rock, but not sooner he asked that question he let out a wave of chakra and the stone broke—"speak lowly scum so that I can enjoy your blood"

"**Blood? What are you talking about Jashin? Why do you want this human's blood?"**

"Happiness is not enough anymore lowly excuse of a cat, I find human blood to be more tasty"

"He is the first key, it's not weird that he get's affected by Yami, he is the closest to it"

"**Alright human, how come you know this much?"**

"I believe we should first purify Jashin, don't you think? He is influenced by Yami, that's why he attacked you I guess"

"Feh, I just wanted to test if his blood is tastier than humans' you want to purify me? There is nothing wrong with the greatness that is me"

"**The human is right, you are corrupted, and we will purify you"**

"Come and get me then!"

After than Naruto charged against the fake god and prepared himself to engage, but Jashin wasn't a god, albeit fake but a god nonetheless, for nothing, as soon as Naruto was near he had to jump backwards to prevent being stabbed by the blood spears that rose from the ground under Jashin's feet.

_So blood, should have known, then we will need to use water—_thought the blond

_**Good thing I got you those powers**_

Again the blond charged at Jashin, this time with a plan, the deity launched several blood needles against him and with the number he was confident the boy wouldn't be able to dodge but what was his surprise when instead of dodging he only made a few moves with his hands and that was all he needed to launch the needles back to him, Jashin was shocked and he was barely able to parry the blood weapons with his scythe.

"You are full of surprises ningen, aren't you? Let's see how you fare against this"—he then created what appeared to be a blood golem, Naruto smirked

"Thanks for the huge amount, I was wondering where I would get enough to defeat you"—he then made more movements with his hands and what was once a blood golem was now a water one

"What the…!"—he had to evade then an attack from the golem which soon lost form and became a stream of water that came after him like a snake.

Jashin tried to attack the water being but every time he did the blood fused with the water and made the creature bigger, not long after he was surrounded by it and had nowhere to escape then the water formed an sphere trapping him again, the water became ice and immobilized him.

"You should stay still for a while, I would hate it if you were pierced by that stalagmite"—said Naruto pointing upside, Jashin looked up and saw that effectively a huge stone stalagmite was hanging over his head and the only thing that stopped it was the ice prison

"You forget, ningen, that I'm immortal"

"But I'm sure you are not exempt of pain and it would take a lot from you to heal a wound that huge"

"**Now that you have immobilized him we can proceed with the purification"**

"Hey! Where the hell were you when I was fighting him?"—asked the blond

"**Regaining energy, fighting him before you arrived left me weak and I would be of no help for the purification"**

"Whatever, let's get this done so that we can talk peacefully"—he made some hand seals and slammed both his palms on the ground, a poof of red smoke started pouring from that point before it took the form of a fox the size of an adult man with nine tails.

"**Kyuubi no Youko!"**

"**Hi there big cat"—**greeted the miniature bijuu—**"has been a long time, hasn't it?"**

"**I see, so this human is you vessel, that explains how he knows so much, but why did you tell him?"**

"**We can discuss that later, Jashin needs our help right now"**

"**Right, with you here this should be no problem at all"**

The purification of the fake god took them no more than half an hour with the three of them working on it, as soon as it was done Naruto freed Jashin who fell to his knees exhausted.

"Damn, that was a hell of a pain"

"**What did you expect? We had to dig into your very soul"—**said Byakko

"**Well, I think the kit can explain everything to the both of you, I need a rest after that so I will take my leave"—**said the Kyuubi and not sooner than that he disappeared into the seal

"Alright ningen, explain!"—ordered Jashin

"First of all don't speak as if you are above me, I'm part of the fourth key so we're the same rank"

"As if, you are part of the keys just because of bad luck, now speak"

"Whatever, might as well get done with it"

"**I'm certainly intrigued by what you might reveal, even if you are part of the keys and wield the Kyuubi, it doesn't explain how you found me and how you knew I was being attacked"**

"Hmmm, to be honest I didn't know you were being attacked at all, and I wasn't sure if you were still here, whatever, let me explain, I'm sure you can tell but I'm not from this time, well, my body is, but my soul comes from far in the future, 50 years or so, when enough of Yami's power escaped the seal to create a second Yami using a human host"

"What? That's impossible"

"You were affected by its power, so it's perfectly possible, I was the only remaining part of the seal by then so I felt it was my duty to fight it, of course I lost, I was dying and Kyuubi took my very soul and travelled with it back to this time so that we could prevent it from happening, I have a few plans to prevent it, first of all let me tell you how it happened, the first key, Jashin, you were corrupted the same way you were just now and fed from blood, you had a set of followers that fed you but they were killed and only one remained, his name is Hidan, he is the reason you were strong enough to work as the key, unfortunately some time three years from now he was…sort of killed and was unable to keep you strong, that's how Yami got pass the first key, the second key are the seven demons that resided in mist and that became the seven swords"

"**So the kids became swords? Who would have thought of that?"**

"Kids?"

"Well, the second key was formed by the youngest of us all, so for us they are kids, anyway go on"

"Right, well the swords were destroyed until only one remained, the second key became too weak to restrain all of Yami's power then, the third key is already weakened by half its power"

"**But we can strengthen it, Senryu and Suzaku were 'destroyed' but we the four guardians are immortal, they will be born again sooner or later, but they won't be part of the keys anymore, we can make them form part of the key again though"**

"If that's true then it's a relief, we will do it as soon as they are reborn then"

"**That would be the best course of action, I can keep tabs on when they are back"**

"Perfect"

"This still doesn't explain why you came here"

"Let me finish first, I don't know what happened to Byakko in the future so I will only guess that you got him good and that weakened even more the third seal, now, the fourth seal, the juubi, afterwards the nine bijuu were sealed into different persons and an organization called Akatsuki captured them in order to revive the juubi and seal it away within the leader's body, I resisted until the end and the guy tired of waiting tried to revive the juubi, convinced that eight of nine was enough to do the job, his actions provoked juubi to be reborn but destroyed afterwards, not being complete destabilized it and juubi disappeared leaving the fourth key weakened, as it is that the four keys were weak but not destroyed Yami couldn't escape but he could leak enough power to create the second Yami, I'm taking actions already, first of all is empower the key to prevent Yami's power from ever leaking out, I'm seeking the seven swords to protect them, I came to find Byakko, but now that I know we can return the third key to its full power we will do that, Jashin, I really don't know what could be done about you, sooner or later you will be corrupted again"

"I'm aware of that, I was purified just now and I can feel Yami's power already trying to affect me again, it will be harder this time as now I'm aware of what Yami is trying to do, but who knows how much I can endure, the only possibility we have is for you to seal me"

"**Sealing any of us wouldn't affect the seal, but you are different Jashin, you are the first key all by yourself, sealing you would mean to weaken the first key"**

"Unless I'm sealed into an object that is constantly surrounded by power to use for the key"—he then looked at Naruto—"you have a lot of chakra, more than enough to feed any object so that I can empower the key even through the seal"

"But if I have you always with me you will feed of my happiness or that of anyone surrounding me, no thanks"

"Well, if you give enough power I won't need to feed too much, and you are a shinobi, I can feed whenever you are in battle, feeding from your enemies"

"I can live with that, but whatever the case I can't seal you right now, I need to prepare"

"I know, tell me where to find you and I will go there in a month"

"Then we will meet in Konoha, but I won't seal you until after the invasion that will happen there, having a god there to help would be great"

"No, we have not the luxury of time, as soon as we meet you will seal me and that's final"

"Alright then, now the main reason I came here, Byakko, I want you to sign a summoning contract with me"

"**What for?"**

"As far as I know two of the four parts of the third key are dead, I want the contract to keep tabs on you so that I know you are fine, we can't let the keys to weaken anymore"

"**I guess I can understand that, why not? it's not like I have any better ideas, and the four keys have lost contact with each other for too long, maybe it's time we are in contact once more"**

"So, how do we o this?"

"**I will do the work, you only need to sign the contract when I'm finished, give me a few minutes, you will have to sign with both hands, the tiger clan you will be able to summon is powerful so a one hand contract won't do"**

"I guessed as much, I will still be able to sign one hand contracts right?"

"**It has always been like that"—**said the tiger while taking a more anthropomorphic form—**"a human ****is able to sign three contracts tops, two one handed and one two handed contracts, anyway I will get to work, you wait here"**

"You know you are a lucky fellow ningen? The tiger clan decided to drop the summoning contract once Byakko became part of the third key"

"I know, it's great I get to be their first summoner in a long time, I guess I'm that awesome"—smirked the blond—"anyway, be sure to be there in a month"

"Don't worry, I will arrive, as long as I get to eat I have no problem with being sealed, I get to laze all day long and you will feed me, but when you die be sure you hand whatever you seal me in to someone suitable, we don't want the seal weakening after you are gone"

"I'm preparing a suitor already, I told you, I have a few plans, if I fail to keep the keys strong then I'm already weakening two of the three possible hosts, if that fails too then I and Kyuubi will become new keys while the one I'm preparing creates a new set of seals to restrain Yami again, if that fails…I guess we will have to think in a few counter plans"

"I guess"

"**It's done"—**announced Byakko in his anthropomorphic form while carrying a big scroll—**"just sign in blood like any other contract but put both your hands at the end"**

Naruto signed the contract after that and told both deities that he had been there longer than he expected and had to leave, both of them nodded and Naruto left to meet the Iwa team.

"Tarou-san? Where were you?"—asked the jounin

"He, sorry, you were all sleeping and we are near the place so I decided to let you sleep while I went to look for the heirloom, anyway it wasn't there so I guess someone found it beforehand, a shame I will never get to know what my great grandfather left for the family there, we should get going"

"Are you sure Tarou-san? Maybe you didn't look hard enough; we could help you search for it"

"I think we shouldn't lose more time, the cave is not that big and I looked all around it, whatever it was, it's not longer there"

"If you are sure then fine, alright team pack everything, we are leaving now"

.-._.-._.

**I will be honest, I'm not so sure about this chapter but I had to get it done, anyway I think the next chapter will be better, see you**


	11. Chapter 11

Ch. 10: Home, dreaded home

"You are finally back, I has been half a month since you left"—said Hiruzen Sarutobi to the blond that had just entered his office—"it has been a pain looking over your clones so that they don't dispel"

"I'm sorry jii-jii, I found some trouble on the way"—at this the Hokage looked up from his paperwork to Naruto

"Problems?"

"Yeah, but it doesn't matter, everything went well, it just meant that I had to do things slowly, anyway I got the contract and Byakko is now my summon, along with all the tiger clan, you should put that in Konoha's record, it would look good to the clients, and I found Jashin"

"The first key, that's unexpected"

"I know, it was a real surprise to find him there fighting Byakko, he has been purified and well, I think he will be fine for a while, so everything was better than planned"

"Excellent, I got some info for you as well, I had our spy network check for the swords, we found two of them, I sent ANBU squads for them with direct orders not to destroy the swords and if possible that no one gets wind that the owners had been killed, if everything goes well we should have those two here in a month's time"

"I see; any idea who the owners are?"

"Just one, Raiga Kurosuki, the other one I'm unsure"

"Raiga…"—mumbled the blond with a faraway look—"…could you send a message to the ANBU after him?"—this perked the Hokage's attention

"I take it you met him before?"

"Yeah"

"What's the message then?"

"Bring the boy alive, he is not to be harmed"

"Naruto, I can't send that kind of order, the mission they have is S-Rank, you know that the mission must be completed in secrecy, if they were to bring a witness then the secret of the mission would be in jeopardy"

"…please?"

"Sigh, Naruto I swear, you give me a lot of troubles"—said the old man rubbing his forehead with his wrinkled hands, this only got a snicker from the blond

"I know, but I'm doing all of this for a reason, that kid doesn't deserve to die, and if we kill Raiga he will be left alone, he doesn't deserve that either, besides with a council that fawns over bloodlines it shouldn't be a problem to have this boy here"

"I will tell them to try and bring him, whoever this boy is"

"Thanks, I will take my leave now, I need to check on Inari and make it up to Sakura for leaving her with a clone"

"Inari has been using your training ground, Sakura made it so that he could enter"

"Good"

"I'm curious Naruto, Kakashi mentioned you used a bloodline to control elements, not using jutsu at all, just using the elements to do what you wanted, but as far as I can tell that's exactly what you are teaching Inari so it means it isn't a bloodline so, what is it?"

"You don't need to know jii-jii, I have my secrets, and I decide who to share them with, if I chose Inari I had my reasons, don't tell the council, if they know that it can be taught the will surely ask me to teach Sasuke and then all other shinobi, I'm not about to give him any kind of power"

"I see, I was just curious, the council could get wind that you have such power, if they believe it's a bloodline they could try to get you into the CRA"

"It's better that they think it's a bloodline, I can very well decline the CRA, it's easier than deal with the Uchiha"

"I guess, thanks for reporting Naruto, I will inform you of how it went about the swords"

"Please do, see you later jii-jii"

"Oh and Naruto, your sensei nominated your team for the chuunin exams, here is the form"—he handled him a sheet—"you must take it to room 312 at the academy along with your team the day after tomorrow"

"I know, by the way, have some ANBU guards ready during the second phase"

"What? Is something going to happen then?"

"I'm not sure; I might or might not be able to prevent it, but just be ready"

"Alright, anything else?"

"…no, I think not…see you later"—and with that he disappeared

"Geez, sometimes I just wish he was a normal child, then maybe I would be free of most of my headaches"

.-._.-._.

Naruto as soon as he left the Hokage's tower went to find Inari, he was easier to approach since he wasn't trained, hence he hadn't know the blond was absent for half a month, the clone had been training him in the shinobi arts and water bending; unfortunately he found out he wasn't able to teach him to bend all elements like him, he would be able to master just one, not more. When it came to bending the kid was surprising, it was a whole different story regarding the shinobi arts though, but he would manage.

After visiting Inari and catching up on what he had learnt so far he bid him a farewell and left to find his pink haired girlfriend, he was already grimacing; unlike many others Sakura was accustomed to him using Kagebunshin and she knew him well enough to be able to tell the difference between the jinchuriki and a copy, that was the reason of his hesitance, he never thought for even a second that she would be fooled by the clone, as he approached her house he dispelled the clone and received all its information. He was right, she only needed 10 seconds to figure out that the Naruto in front of her was a clone, and that was half a month ago, he didn't even want to think about how mad she would be at him not telling her.

He landed outside her home's door and rang the bell, he let out a sigh of relief when her mother opened the door, whit her there Sakura wouldn't try anything dangerous…for now.

"Oh, Hi Naruto…I thought you were upstairs with Sakura?"—greeted the pink haired woman who was a carbon copy of Sakura, just a bit taller and her hair was long whereas Sakura had hers shortened

"Um…yeah, I went out for a while to…speak to someone"

"I see, well come in, I'm sure she is still there"

"Thanks, Hanami-san"—he said and entered the house

"How many times have I told you to call me mother?"—said Hanami with a fake pout

"Well…it's just that…you see…me…I mean…"

"You are so easy Naruto, I'm just pulling your leg, go to my daughter, she has been in kind of a foul mood since half a month ago as you know and you don't want to make her angry when she is like that, must be something wrong with her period"

"Idontwanttohearthis"—he hastily said and ran upstairs to meet Sakura, Hanami just giggled at how easy it was to make a man nervous.

.-._.-._.

Naruto slowly opened the door to Sakura's room wanting to be cautious, but as soon as he perked his head inside a pillow flew directly at his face.

"Where the hell have you been!"—asked an irate Sakura as she stood up and took him by the collar of his shirt—"answer me"

"Alright, alright, I will tell you, just please calm down"—pleaded the blond

"Do you know how it feels to be left with only a clone? Hmm do you know? I have been so worried and damn…just tell me already"—she launched him to the bed while towering over him in a menacing manner

"Ple…please don't hurt me"

"If you speak I won't hurt you…too much"

"Can we go somewhere more…private? I can't exactly tell you here, it's a bit of a village secret"

"…alright, let's go to your apartment, Inari should still be training so he won't be there and we can speak freely"

.-._.-._.

They both arrived to the blonde's apartment, as Sakura predicted it was deserted, Inari was supposed to live with Naruto but the blond was a slave driver when it came to training so the kid shouldn't be back until before nightfall, Sakura took Naruto by the hear and dragged him to a chair.

"Alright, we are alone now so you have no more excuses, speak"—ordered the pinkette who was standing in front of him with a death glare

"…well, Sakura-chan, the thing is, where to begin"

_**Try the beginning. It's usually how people start explaining things.**_

_Oh right, perfectly logical, hey Sakura let's see everything starts 41 years from now, how is that? Are you fucking nuts!_

_**No need to shout damn it! I was referring to Yami, how about you tell her I told you about that fucking asshole and how the keys are withering and you decided to help?**_

_You think it could work?_

_**I don't see why not**_

"I'm still waiting Naruto, and I don't like it"—growled the girl

"…sigh…please take a seat Sakura"—requested the blond with a defeated look on his eyes, Sakura noticed it, she was mad but he was her boyfriend and that look made her worried so she complied and took a seat next to him—"this is all Youko's fault"—he muttered.

_**Hey!**_

_What? It is!_

"How is this Youko's fault?"—asked the pinkette, preventing a silent argument between host and demon

"Well, as you know he is a demon right?"

"Yeah, so?"

"The thing is, demons are sort of immune to time"—Sakura's eyes widened at that bit of information, but still couldn't see the relation.

"I still don't see what you want to say, what does that have to do with this?"

"Youko, he…he came from the future, truth is he comes from 41 years from now, he purposefully let himself be sealed into me"

"Why would he do that?"

"That's the reason I was gone for this half month, you see, the same way that Youko is sealed within me, another demon, a worse demon is sealed within the earth"—again, Sakura was surprised but decided to reserve her questions for later—"its name is Yami, 41 year from now it was sort of…freed would be the wrong word but I can't find anything better, so, he was freed because the seal that keeps it at bay weakened too much, Yami destroyed the earth and the demon realm, it wouldn't be long before it would go after the spirit realm, but not the point, Youko, as far as he knows, was the last demon left so he came back to prevent Yami from being free, he chose me as his host because I'm in a position where I can slowly weaken Yami in the long run, and can also strengthen the seal"

"So that's what you were doing these past weeks? You strengthened the seal?"—asked her a little bit relieved, but when Naruto shook his head she worried again.

"No, you see the seal is made of four parts, I went to make sure that one of those parts was still complete, since Youko was aware that it would be down to half its power around this time, so I went and not only found the part I was going to check but the first part too"

"The way you talk about it, you make it sound like these parts are persons"

"Not persons, demons, the four parts of the seal are demons, the first part is a demon that feeds from human happiness, his name is Jashin. He is coming here in a month to be sealed by me"

"Why?"

"Since he is the first part of the seal he is easily influenced by Yami's power and then he starts feeding from human blood, to prevent that he agreed to be sealed, he said he really doesn't care as long as he gets to eat, I will keep the details for later, then there is the second part of the key, you remember that sword I hid when we were raiding Gato's place?"

"Yes, is that sword the second part of the seal?"

"Part of it, the second part of the seal is formed by 7 demons, that later became 7 swords, which are wielded by…"

"The seven swordsmen of mist"—cut Sakura—"then why did you let Zabuza keep his sword?"

"It will be safe with him, besides, he needs it to achieve his goal, but it doesn't matter, the Hokage is already looking for the others, two are already on the way here, there is another one safe in Kiri, together with the one we got is five already, I know where to find another but it's too dangerous to go for it yet, and the last one is a mystery to me, the Hokage can take care of that"

"The Hokage knows too?"—Naruto just nodded.

"The third part of the seal is known to everyone, though no one believes they exists, the four cardinal guardians, Byakko, Suzaku, Seiryu and Genbu, Youko's knowledge says that Suzaku and Seiryu are dead, so it was important to make sure the other two were safe, so I went to look for Byakko, I didn't know I would find Jashin too, I fought and purified him, and he agreed to be sealed to prevent further difficulties"

"I see, that explains why you took so long"

"Hmmm…"

"What?"

"Oh, nothing"

"Is that not the reason you took so long?"

"Well…"

"Naruto Uzumaki"—growled her dangerously—"why do I get the impression you did something reckless?"

"Don't know what you are talking about"—she then took him by the collar of his shirt

"Speak…NOW!"

"Alright, alright, the thing is that I had to go to Iwa and well, you know how they are when it comes to Konoha shinobies, and then I had to feign being a civilian, that's why I took so long, I could have been back the first week had not been because of that"

"Iwa…you went to Iwa, of all places the most hostile towards us, why are you so stupid!"

_**That's right girl, tell him!**_

_Shut up fur ball_

"Wait…"—said Sakura after pounding him a few times—"…you said there were four parts but only explained three"

"Well, that would be the reason why Youko was still alive and Yami wasn't totally free, the nine bijuus are the fourth part, now, since Youko is inside me then I'm part of the seal as well"

"So…you keep the strongest demon at bay…along with the strongest bijuu…and defeated and purified another demon not long ago?"

"And spoke to another afterwards; remember I went to visit Byakko"—he then was jumped on by the pinkette

"My boyfriend is so amazing!"

_Can't understand women, first they pound you then they want to jump your bones_

.-._.-._.

**Somewhere in Amegakure**

"Nagato-san…he is here"—said a blue haired woman to a shadowed figure inside a dark room

"What does he want? He shouldn't be here"

"It seems someone took over at Kiri and he lost his seat as the Mizukage"

"I see, we shouldn't make him wait"

"Damn right Pein"—said a man who had just entered the room, he had jet black messy hair and a bang covered his left eye, the other eye was visible, it was red with three black tomoes surrounding the pupil—"it seems I have a problem"

"Does it mean that Akatsuki has been discovered already?"—asked Nagato

"No, no one knows our existence yet, even less that I'm part of this, no, this problem is just mine, I will have to be in the hiding, I don't want anyone of the organization knowing about me yet, the only thing that has changed is that we lost control of Kiri, but that's a minor issue"

"I hear someone took over, who was so powerful as to throw you out of the Mizukage's seat?"

"That fucking asshole Momochi Zabuza, I don't know how he did it or who helped him achieve such feat, but I will find out, whoever did it is a problem"

"Le**ade**r-sa**ma**"—called a weird voice as a man emerged from the ground beneat them, the man's skin was even weirder, half was with and the rest was black—"**I have s**ome info**rmation ab**out Konoh**a**, it see**ms the Hoka**ge has been **investi****gating the **loca**tion of** the seven **swords**men of Kir**i, from w**hat I gather**ed I ca**n tell he **wants the **swor**ds, but as to why, I cou**ldn't find out"

"It doesn't matter, it's well known that those swords are special, he must want their powers to be an asset for the village, but it could be a problem given that Kisame is involved, they could come for him, we will need to prevent any information of us from leaking out because of him, anything about the jinchuriki?"—asked the red eyed man

"I'm afrai**d not Leader-s**ama, no one **speaks of such jinch**uriki, maybe he **died or was sent to an**other villa**ge, what**ever the case, it appears there is **no jinchuriki at** Konoha"

"If the brat died then we are screwed, but if not…investigate further, look in other villages, try to find out anything about it, I'm sure that trice damned Yondaime sealed the Kyuubi inside a human so look for that person"

"**Yes lead**er-sama"

_If the Kyuubi is dea__d__…then my plans have been for naught, Juubi's power must be mine—_seethed the red eyed man

.-._.-._.

**Sorry for the delay, this last week was for final exams and well…you understand, and afterwards I just wanted to rest all day long for two days, so that's why it took so much time to re-upload this chapter.**

**AN: I really wanted to make thing difficult for Narut****o and Sakura's relationship but I just couldn't find a way to do it. Maybe in the future.**


	12. Chapter 12

Ch. 11: Let's begin, meet the second host

The day between Naruto's return and the beginning of the exams was spent reviewing what Inari had learnt in that time and training with Sakura, though she focused more in relieving her anger.

"You should have seen him, Inari got that Suna guy good"—commented her at some point during their training.

"Heh, actually I was there, remember that the clone gave me all its memories, so it was like I saw it first person, and anyway, ultimately it was my clone that solved everything"

"Yeah well, at least it resulted in Inari having his first friend his age here, Konohamaru was grateful to him"—answered her not at all pleased with his reply.

"I would bet he bugged him all day long to teach him water bending"

"Yeah, sort of, fortunately Inari knows not to talk about it"

"That's good, a ninja must never shows his secrets, anyway, probably soon I will have another student so he won't have to train alone"

"Are you planning on training Konohamaru?"

"What? No, well, it's not in my plans, I would need to think about it, no, I was referring to someone else that may arrive here soon, it all depends on how things were for the ANBU after one of the swordsmen"

"And what is his or her name?"

"I can't tell, Kyuubi's thing"

"That's seems suspicious to me"

"Whatever, let's go lady we need to keep training"

"Oh please, Naruto, not everyone is a stamina freak like you"

"You are just lazy, come on, get up"

"Alright, damn slave driver"

.-._.-._.

The next day Naruto and Sakura arrived together to the academy, Sasuke was already there waiting, his scowl always present.

"Took your sweet time"—commented the Uchiha.

"Stuff it duckass, let's go inside"

"Naruto!"—scolded Sakura.

"What?"

"That's no way to speak to a teammate"

"Come on Sakura, it's routine by now"

"Hn"—was the only answer Sasuke gave and went into the building, the other two followed afterwards.

As they got to the second floor they noticed a crowd of gennin making a ruckus, Sasuke smirked and was about to speak when a hand prevented it, he was surprised he didn't even got to open his mouth.

"Don't even speak a word about it, if they can't see it they are not chuunin material"—whispered the blonde besides him, who was the hand's owner.

"Shut up, Uzumaki, I know it"—scowled the Uchiha.

"Yeah right, just keep telling that to yourself, it may come true"—as scolding he received just an elbow on the side by Sakura. To which he laughed—_man, I just love messing with him, someone has__ to put him on earth._

_**But I worry that with all the time you have put him down he is becoming darker, he will be an easy target for Yami in the future, if we fail that is.**_

_Oh, but that's exactly what I want furball, he is weak, and I plan to keep it that way, and with him being the host it will be easy to seal him, of course I don't plan on failing anyway._

_**Let's just hope this plan succeeds then.**_

They kept walking towards the room they were supposed to be for the first test but their path was suddenly blocked by a green clad teenager.

"You"—he pointed at Naruto, which surprised the blond—"my name is Rock Lee, and I have heard you are a taijutsu genius, I want to prove my flames of youth against you, that and…"—he looked at Sakura and then Naruto remembered what had happened the first time.

"Oh no, you don't Lee, she is my girlfriend so back off!"—Lee returned his eyes to stare at the blonde.

"Then I shall prove myself worthier than you, my flames of youth will…"

"Enough of this foolishness of your flames of youth…whatever that is, if what you want is spare with me then it will have to wait because we are running out of time, maybe we will face each other during the exam, until then see you"—and with that he took Sakura by the waist and headed to the stairs leading to the room they need to be. Neither of them noticed the scowl on the Uchiha's face.

"Yosh! You are right my youthful rival. I shall wait for our youthful encounter!"

"Uhm…Naruto, what was all that?"—Naruto shuddered just by thinking again of the whole thing that had just happened.

"Some weirdo he is"

"Yeah"

"And he thinks he will be able to snatch you away from me, he is in for a huge surprise"—it was Sakura's turn to shudder.

"You are not serious right?"

"No, I'm Naruto"—answered the blond with a smirk, which faded when he received a fist on the shoulder.

"Stop being an idiot"

"Where is the fun in that? Anyway, that guy is Rock lee, you remember when Iruka sensei named the teams he said something about a team that was still around?"

"Yes, so is that guy from that team?"

"Yes, Rock Lee, a taijutsu specialist and is even more of a slave driver than I am, unfortunately he has a condition that prevents him from using ninjutsu or genjutsu, so he is left with only taijutsu, but don't misunderstand, he is dangerous and mustn't be underestimated"

"You know a lot about him"—stated the pinkette with curiosity

"I made a point of knowing a lot about our shinobi, especially those that are close to our age, we might need to work along them sometime"

"Makes sense"

"His team"—he continued while the three of them kept walking—"Hyuuga Neji, another taijutsu monster, regarded as a genius among his own clan. He focuses in the use of his Byakugan and the Juuken, he is fixated with fate, sad story behind that whole affair and it's not my place to talk. The other teammate is Ten Ten, a bit of a tomboy girl and I understand she is an orphan. She specializes in Kenjutsu and the basics of Fuinjutsu, deadly with any weapon so make sure not to piss her off if she has anything sharp at hand"

"Wow, you certainly did your homework Naruto"—said the voice of their sensei as they arrived to the door.

"You heard me from here?"

"I have good ears"—was the plain answer—"anyway, I'm glad the three of you came since only teams of three can enter the exam, now I think you have little time before it starts so you better get inside and good luck"

.-._.-._.

As team 7 entered the room Uchiha Sasuke was thrown to the ground by a yellow blur and a voice screaming 'Sasuke-kun'.

"Hi Ino-chan"—greeted Sakura to her childhood friend who was at the moment on top of Sasuke.

"Hi Sakura-chan, good to see you here"—greeted back the girl without letting go, then she looken at Naruto—"Uzumaki"

"Yamanaka"—was the only answer the blonde male gave, they didn't fight against each other for Sakura's sake, but since Naruto always defeated Sasuke, the Yamanaka heir refused to be friendly with him.

"So you are here too"—said a black haired boy as he got near them, he had his hair tied in a way that made him look like a pineapple.

"Hey Shika, doing well?"—asked the blond.

"I would much prefer being at home resting for the day and you know it"

"Yeah, I just thought you were whipped enough to stop being a lazy bun"—in response he received a hard glare from the Nara, he only chuckled.

"So, the whole group eh?"—commented another voice, the group turned around and saw the Inuzuka heir nearing them, along with his teammates, who Naruto noticed were quite close with each other, Hinata and Shino, who would have thought—"you would think they would choose competent teams for this exam"

"Yeah, instead they chose you"—answered Naruto.

"Shut up Uzumaki!"

"Make me dog's breath!"

"Gladly…"

"You should keep it down, being noisy is not on your best interest"—said a new voice and they saw a silver haired teen approaching.

"Yeah, well who asked you?"—was the intelligent answer from Kiba.

"Sigh, rookies like you never know how to behave, look behind you"—Naruto didn't even bother, he knew what he wanted them to see, instead he kept his eyes fixated on the traitorous shinobi while the others looked at the angry Ame shinobies—"some people here are really jumpy about the exam, it's not advisable to be as loud as you have been so far"

"I take it you are not new to this stuff"—commented the blond knowing full well the answer.

"Yes, but you know what they say, the seventh time is the charm"—answered Kabuto with a sheepish smile.

"Right, so you know a lot?"

"Actually yes, if you want I can share some information with you, with these"—he then showed them a deck of cards—"these are my nin-info cards and contain a great deal of information gathered from previous exams"

"Do you have information on individuals?"—asked Sasuke.

"If you give me the description of the person or the name then I can look for it"

"Sabaku no Gaara and Uzumaki Naruto"—answered the Uchiha

"Oh, you have the names, that takes out the fun, well let's see, Sabaku no Gaara, son of the Yondaime Kazekage, must be wary of him then, he has completed 9 C-Ranked missions, 8 B-Ranked and 1 A-Ranked, wow impressive and…oh my, he has come out of all those without a scratch"—at this bit of information everyone who was hearing felt chills run down their spines—"that guy is dangerous then, let's see, Uzumaki Naruto, orphan, rookie of the year, done 20 D-Ranked missions, 1 A-Ranked mission and… another impressive shinobi, 1 S-Ranked solo mission"—here Naruto and his teammates' eyes widened, his teammates because they never did said mission and Naruto because he never thought the Hokage would record his journey as an S-Rank—"my, my, it seems we discovered the big fishes"

"What S-Ranked mission was that Uzumaki?"—demanded the Uchiha with hate and envy filling his voice. The others wanted to know too but out of curiosity.

"Don't you know Uchiha? S-Ranked missions must remain a secret"—was his calm answer, he already knew that Kabuto was a spy so he wasn't surprised by the amount of information he possessed.

"Shut up you worthless mongrels"—came the, at least for Naruto, familiar voice of Morino Hibiki from the front of the room—"take seat we are going to begin the first test of the chuunin exam!"

.-._.-._.

**Sorry for the delay, and I know this chapter is shorter than usual so, sorry for that too. I really don't have an excuse so you will have to do with the apology, anyway R&R I will try to update soon, but I promise nothing, I feel like a writer's block is about to attack me, don't know for sure, just a feeling, see you.**

**PS: As you can see Kabuto never had time to mention Oto so that's why the sound shinobi**** had no reason to attack him.**


	13. Chapter 13

Ch. 12: The bender finds a snake.

The last 45 minutes had been boring as hell for Uzumaki Naruto, for he had been doing nothing while the rest of the chuunin applicants tried to obtain the answers for the hellish test proctored by one Morino Ibiki. His teammate Uchiha Sasuke was having problems with obtaining information, Naruto remembered that the Uchiha had used his sharingan to pass this test but now he didn't have it. His girlfriend on the other side had answered it all by herself, and her friend Ino had used her family jutsu to steal her answers and pass them to her own teammates.

Besides him, just like the first time, sat one Hyuuga Hinata who, contrary to the Hinata he had met the first time, was more confident,the 'why' was beyond him. She had used her byakugan to copy the answers just like her cousin, and her teammates had used their animal companions for the same purpose. The ones with the most creative method were Ten Ten and Lee who were working with mirrors on the roof to copy the answer for just about everyone.

He on the other side, he sat still, just waiting, why? You would ask, the reason was that he already knew how this was going to end, and it was about time too, just as the clock indicated that only 15 minutes remained Ibiki called everyone's attention and announced the rules. One by one several teams started leaving, he turned to look at Sakura who was looking at his test with worried eyes, he just winked at her to calm her worries, in response she stuck out her tongue at him and when he faked a hurt look she displayed a very Naruto-ish smirk.

By the end of the test only 18 teams remained, which struck as a surprise to the blond, until he remembered how it had gone the first time, and since he hadn't shouted this time not as many had remained. Instead of paying attention to Ibiki he just stared at the window to the jounin's right.

_3…2…1…here she comes—_and just as he finished counting the window he was looking at broke.

"This is no time to celebrate, my name is Mitarashi Anko and I'll be the proctor for the second test, now follow me!"—and everyone went silent.

_I know this is the past and all, but she is still scary._

_**I warned you that it wasn't wise to drink with her, but no, you had to ignore my advice and got you in one hell of a mess, I like her a lot though.**_

_Of course you would, she is wild._

_**Yeah…man that was one hell of a night.**_

_I still say she is scary._

"…alright, everyone you have one hour to get to training ground 44 for the next part of the exam"—and after that she shunshined away.

.-._.-._.

"You knew about the exam"—accused Sakura once they and Sasuke were on their way towards training ground 44.

"Actually not Sa-chan, I just figured out that we were supposed to cheat without being found, and since I had no means to do so I just sat and waited for the last question. When he started saying the rules for the last question I admit I was a little bit nervous, but then I thought about it and he really doesn't have the kind of authority to prevent someone from taking the exam, even if he had prohibited us from taking it here we could still go to the exam when it's held somewhere else. The only ones that have such authority are the Hokage and the council. The worst that could have happened was that I answered wrong the question but still got to participate some other time"

"I see, well I wouldn't know about that, I really thought he would forbid us to participate again, but then again, you are in better terms with the Hokage, almost like a son to him, so you would know these things. It's almost unfair"

"You use what you got. We are here"—Sakura's eyes drifted from Naruto to the training ground they were nearing, it seemed like a forest with overgrowth trees.

"Everything is so big"

"Hn"—grunted the Uchiha as if it was something normal.

"The forest of death"—commented Naruto staring directly at the forest in front of them, his teammates looked at him with wonder.

"That's right gaki, this is the forest of death, how do you know that though?"—asked the same kunoichi that had intruded the room at the academy where they had been doing the first test.

"I like to be informed"—lied the blond—"though I have never been inside to prove the legitimacy of its name"—the kunoichi just stared at him as if analyzing the blond.

"You are the gaki that has an S-Rank on your name, right?"

"Feh, I wouldn't know"

"Hmm, this year's exam might be interesting after all"—she said with delight—"you know, you are not half bad, I wouldn't mind having some fun with you"—hearing this Sakura wrapped one of Naruto's arms and held it closer to her—"oh? Are we jealous pinky?"

"Stay away from To-kun"—she growled.

"I wouldn't mind sharing you know?"—commented Anko with a suggestive look.

"But I would"—said Naruto—"no offence…erm…Mitarashi-san…but you are rater scary so…"—at this Anko started laughing like a mad woman.

"Ha…you rea….haha…you really thought I was serious…hehe…no offence kid, but you're rater young for my liking…heh…though maybe in a couple of years, for now I was just teasing"

"Right"—commented both Sakura and Naruto not really believing her, with her wicked aspect she could easily be serious about it.

After that, one by one, the other teams arrived and when all the 17 were there Anko spoke.

"Welcome to training ground 44…otherwise known as the forest of death and you soon will find out why. Here is where the second test will take place. The rules are simple, in the center of this forest there is a tower"—then she took out two scrolls, one white and one black—"each team will be given one of these, your objective is to reach the tower with both scrolls, you are to stay in the forest for 5 days, even if you lose your scroll you will stay inside, if you lose a member of your team you are disqualified as well. Now, before we start, we will hand you these"—she showed them a bunch of sheet—"there will be deaths during this test, these forms exonerates this village, and even more important, me, from any responsibility, if you want to keep going you have to sign this and hand it over that booth where you will receive your scroll"

The forms were handed not long after that, and they were given a recess to decide whether or not to continue, after all the teams had signed their forms and were handed their scroll the exam began.

Not long after they entered the forest Naruto excused himself to go to the bathroom, Sauske glared at him for delaying his progress while Sakura berated the blond for waiting until such a time to do that. The blond made his way to a nearby tree and prepared to release just as a bunch of Ame shinobi jumped out of nowhere and seized him, unfortunately for them the clones disappeared just a s several lightning bolts struck each one of them deeming them unconscious.

_**Sure! Show off, knowing the future is a**__** big deal of a handicap. Had you not known that, you would have been captured just like the first time**_—said the Kyuubi while Naruto with the help of two clones checked the shinobies and took everything from them, weapons, food, medicines, among other stuff, if anything he just left them their trousers and left.

_Who says? You? Please, we both know either way they would end up knocked out, I just decided for the easier way. After all I must keep energy for later._

_**That's right, that trice damned snake, make sure he doesn't seal my power again, it was an awful week for little old me.**_

_Alright, I will see what I can do._

"Took you long enough Uzumaki, let's go"—said the Uchiha and attempted to keep walking but Naurto spoke before he left.

"Wait, the team from Ame tried to attack me back there, I knocked them out and got some extra stuff, here I got food pills, blood pills, soldier pills, smoke bombs, actually a lot of stuff, let's distribute it before we continue"

"Did you get ninja wire?"—asked Sasuke.

"Mmm, I think so"—he said while checking the stuff he had—"yep, here it is"—and he threw it to him.

"Give me the medic supplies"—said Sakura taking them from him.

"Alright, I guess I will keep some of the weapons and the rest will go sealed in scrolls, let's go"

"Wait, the Ame shinobi attacked you, probably planning on supplanting you afterwards, if that were to happen in the future we should have a code to identify each other"

"What do you suggest Uchiha-san?"—asked Sakura.

"What about something simple like asking things that only the real us could know"

"That's too basic; if you are captured they can interrogate you to get the answer beforehand"

"There is not enough time to do that in this test, and how can we give an answer to a question we haven't heard? Each one of us should formulate question for the other two but don't tell it to anyone, it's that easy"

"Alright, I guess we can go with that"—grumbled Sasuke and the team departed once again.

It was a while after that they were attacked a second time, this time though it was a strong wind that, if not for the fact that they were using chakra, would have swept them away. Naruto once he steadied himself used his bending skill and dissipated the wind, which caught by surprise to the attacker.

"Kukukukuku it seems you are more skilled than I anticipated"—said one the Kusa shinobi as he got into view.

"It's the creepy guy"—said Sakura.

"Creepy guy?"—asked Naruto not remembering Orochimaru doing anything at all this time.

"Yes, this guy somehow gives me the creeps"—explained the pinkette.

"I see"

"You have the heavens scroll right?"—asked the disguised Sannin—"so you must want my earth scroll, so why don't we begin the fight for each other's scroll?"—asked him as he ate the earth scroll—"with our lives on the line"—with that said his killer intent flared all over the area, Sasuke saw himself die in several ways and by the end he couldn't help but to throw up. Sakura however was more resistant, but not immune, the killer intent from Orochimaru caused her feet to get loose and she fell to her knees. Naruto on the other hand was unfazed, he had confronted the Sannin enough times to be unaffected by his killer intent—"you seem unaffected, so young and yet so powerful"—he said licking his lips with his long tongue, this only served to make Naruto sick.

"What? Are you a pervert?"

"Uzumaki, we must run"—pleaded Sasuke who was frightened, the Kusa shinobi eyed him.

"A prey is always afraid of predators, but your teammates seems like they are other kind of prey, the kind that bites back…it's strange that the Uchiha prodigy is outdone by two nameless shinobies, such a shame"

"Shut up!"—scowled Sasuke, though the fear was still present in his voice.

"Calm down teme, a shinobi must always remain calm, remember that. Sakura-chan, could you please take care of Sasuke? I'm afraid that him being like this he will only get in the way"—Sakura looked at him worriedly.

"Naruto-kun no, this guy is too dangerous, I won't let you fight alone against him"

"It's precisely because of that that you must get away from here, I will take care of everything, it's not like he is a demon"—said the blond with a confident smile plastered on his face. Sakura got the hint of the second part of his statement and tried to take Sasuke and leave, but the Uchiha, tired of being looked down, got away from her and launched himself against the Sannin—"that idiot"—muttered Naruto and launched himself as well. Sakura figured that running was out of the question now and jumped into hiding to help them from afar.

The enemy just stood still, waiting for them, as soon as Sasuke reached him they engaged in a taijutsu fight, which was clearly dominated by the Kusa shinobi. Not more than one second later Naruto joined the fight, though he had to hold back several times due to Sasuke's interference. At some point during the fight Orochimaru grew tired of fighting the, obviously weaker, Sasuke in favor of a more exiting battle.

He had originally come for the Uchiha scion but he was weaker than he thought, and apparently he didn't have the sharingan as he expected, so it was a loss of time to try and turn him to his side. Fortunately it seemed that he had found someone worthy of his efforts, so not everything was lost, he was interested in the blond, he displayed strength and speed, his taijutsu was superb and almost flawless, it was amazing such a thing at that young an age. The boy's body was impressive, and he, Orochimaru, would have it as his own.

He tossed Sasuke away from the fight and jumped just in time to avoid a falling stomp from the blond, though he failed to notice the rock stalagmite rising from right under him and thus he barely managed to land on his feet after avoiding it. He looked at it in wonder; he hadn't sensed the use of chakra from either the blond or no one nearby, he had no heard anyone call a jutsu, hell he hadn't seen any hand seals. He was pulled out of his musing when a piercing pain assaulted him from his feet.

Sakura had been silent while Naruto fought the Kusa shinobi, waiting for the moment to attack, she saw that after her boyfriend's attack the enemy was distracted and she took advantage of it by throwing a kunai that cut the tendons of both his feet. The Sannin after feeling this shouted enraged just before falling to his knees, he was unable to keep standing. Naruto, not being one to let an opportunity go to waste, assaulted Orochimaru once again just as his knee touched the ground and with a well placed fist on his face sent him flying towards one of the overgrown trees, but he wasn't done and pursued him, when he reached him he sank his fist in his rib cage, the Sannin howled in pain, which was soon drowned by the blood he threw up.

Both of them landed on different branches of a large tree, Naruto standing prepared to attack once again, Orochimaru on his knees unable to stand on foot, gasping for air but with a smile on his face.

_Kukuku, this kid is amazing. I must have him—_thought the Sannin.

As Naruto prepared for his attack, Orochimaru bit his thumb and sprawled some of the blood on a seal he had on his wrist to summon a humongous snake, he smirked and using his hands to move he jumped into the forest. Naruto knowing that the snake wouldn't let him pass and that he needed to reach the Sannin quickly before he could recover, bit his own thump and performed the necessary hand seals, Sakura saw this from the bushes and wondered what he was doing since it wasn't a technique he had used before, as he finished the hand seals the blond slammed both hands on the branch of the tree and from a smoke screen a medium size white tiger appeared.

"**You must be the new summoner"**—stated the feline.

"Yes, Uzumaki Naruto, pleased to meet you, anyway I'm in kind of a hurry, please take care of that buddy"—he signaled the snake in front of them and before the tiger could answer he disappeared into the forest following the same path that Orochimaru, leaving behind a tiger mumbling about disrespectful brats.

Meanwhile the Sannin stopped on a branch of a particularly big tree, he was aware the snake hadn't worked at all and that the blond was following him. He turned around so that his back wasn't facing his enemy when he arrived, looked upside and opened his mouth, and from it a human head emerged, followed by a body, a second Orochimaru started to form. This technique had a major flaw when used in battle, he was able to renew his body and toss the damaged one aside, but the process was slow and most shinobi could take advantage of it by attacking the new body which was defenseless until it was out of the mouth. Of course that the technique was so gross that most ninja were stunned by the sight of it and thus didn't attack. Unfortunately for Orochimaru he was unaware that Naruto had seen the technique enough times before to be unaffected and as soon as his torso came into view so did Naruto and a lightning bolt pierced the sannin's emerging body, the Sannin was stunned, no one had ever attacked him while performing this technique, and now a mere kid had taken advantage of its flaw with a technique that had paralyzed him, as he lost consciousness the last thing his brain registered was the feeling of someone touching his back.

Naruto let out a sigh of relief once he saw Sakura safely placing the chakra restriction seal on the, now unconscious, sannin's back, the pinkette then made her way towards the blond and hugged him, she had been afraid, she felt firsthand the killer intent of the man and had been frightened by it. She had been worried for Naruto once the Sannin tossed Sasuke leaving the blond to fend for himself, while she waited in the dark for an opportunity to help. Now that the danger seemed to have passed she only wanted to be near him and make sure he wouldn't disappear, the fact that the blond hadn't sustained mayor injuries was beside the point.

.-._.-._.

Later that night team seven had established a camp near the river on the forest and were enjoying a dinner consisting of roasted fish. Sasuke had woken up sometime after the fight and was furious knowing that after he had been tossed aside they had defeated the Kusa shinobi, who Naruto later revealed to be Orochimaru of the Sannin, which only served to increase his fury.

The Sannin was at that precise moment unconscious, still affected by the electric attack, and was tied to a wood post, his arms had been severed by Naruto, Sakura had been horrified by this but the blond explained that him being one of the Sannin it wasn't wise to let him perform any technique at all, Sakura was still reluctant but saw Naruto's point and accepted it, so the blond took Orochimaru's most precious possessions and cauterized him. The man's legs were tied together tightly to the post, just like his torso and forehead, and was gagged as well, Sakura had questioned him on the last two measured and he answered that he had a technique that made his neck longer so he could still attack using only his mouth, thus the gag and the tied forehead. As extra security he still had the chakra suppression tag on his back and was surrounded by the same kind of tags that Naruto had given to Zabuza that caged someone in a determined area, Sasuke seemed incredibly interested in these tags, though he kept his questions for himself.

"We should put out the fire, we will attract enemies"—said Sasuke after they finished eating, he was calmer now, though still a bit angry. Naruto only shook his head and the other two looked at him in wonder, even Sakura agreed with Sasuke this time.

"We still haven't got an earth scroll, we should keep it up and wait for enemies to come for us"

"But then we will attract too many, it's not convenient for us, besides, we must rest and if we are waiting for teams to appear the three of us would have to stay awake all the while"

"Sigh, I guess you have a point, but this guy wouldn't risk coming here without allies, I was wishing to lure them out. Let's put out the fire then, I will take the first watch, then Sasuke and finally Sakura"

"No, you fought more than us, you need the rest more than us"—said Sakura.

"I'm a stamina freak remember? I'm not one bit tired, so go sleep, I will take care of things here"—The Uchiha just grunted in answer and headed for his sleep bag, Sakura on the other hand staid right where she was and glared at Naruto who in turn gulped.

"Now listen here Uzumaki Naruto"—scolded her—"you have done enough for today, so you will go and sleep until I call on you for the next watch, are we clear?"—Naruto just stared—"ARE WE CLEAR?"—the blond could just nod in answer, his girlfriend could get really terrifying when she wanted to. The pinkette smiled, kissed him and kicked him out to sleep, as she turned around he made a hand seal and created a kagebunshin that would dispel and wake him up in case something happened. Sakura on the other hand did the same seal and her own kagebunshin popped to existence, Naruto had taught it to her, and while the blond was able to create hundreds she was able to do only 4 at most and that was with chakra exhaustion as an after effect. Her clone stayed there keeping watch while she disappeared, after all she was more of a stealthy killer rather than a head on fighter.

.-._.-._.

**Please R&R since I'm not so confident on this chapter and want to know what you think about it.**

**AN: In my defense Orochimaru was underestimating them and was surprised by Naruto in many ways, thus why he didn't ****notice Sakura until it was too late, and Naruto had knowledge on him which is a great advantage given that he knew nothing about Naruto.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Sorry for the delay, I have been kind of busy.**

**AN: Sorry if Ranmaru seems out of character, I never watched the filler arc of Raiga and really can't be bothered with it, I hate fillers! If I'm using Ranmaru in this story is just because I needed someone else for Naruto to train besides the ones I have planed already.**

Ch. 13: The beetle shows himself

Uzumaki Training Ground.

A Naruto clone was surveying Inari's training, the boy had taken to water bending as easily as breathing, and seriously it was scary. Shinobi training on the other hand was something he was struggling to get right, he could already mold chakra and his control was a little bit over average for his age, but he had it hard when it came to performing ninjutsu and genjutsu, the kid's chakra pool wasn't too big, his only remarkable skill was his taijutsu but he had still too much to learn.

Suddenly he felt a change in the air; someone had just tried to cross the boundaries of the training ground. He stood up telling Inari to keep going, and walked towards the only access point to the area. There an ANBU was waiting for him; the blond couldn't help but smile when he saw that the shinobi was accompanied by a purple-haired kid not older than Inari himself.

"Uzumaki-san, good morning, the Hokage requested this kid to be delivered to you, he is the one who accompanied Raiga Kurosuki of the seven swordsmen"—informed the ANBU.

"Alright, I take it then that the target of the mission was accomplished?"—asked the blond.

"The items from both missions are now secure, that's what the Hokage said to tell you"

"That's five then, there is only Kisame's and one other left, thank you for informing me, tell the Hokage please that if he get word on Kisame's location ignore it for now…and…I guess we could go with that, tell him that if he wants he can send Konohamaru as well"

"I will Uzumaki-san…erm…shouldn't you be in the exam?"

"I'm but a clone ANBU-san, the boss is indeed taking part in the exam"

"I see, good luck then"—then the ANBU shunshined away from there, leaving the blond and purple-haired to stare at each other.

"Your name?"—asked the blond.

"You should tell yours first"—answered the kid.

_Well, that was bold for him; I don't remember him like__ that _"If you say so, Uzumaki Naruto"

"You said something about a mission; you are the one who sent after Raiga"—scowled the boy, now Naruto understood his demeanor change.

"I won't apologize kid, he was enslaving a town and he had something I needed. Were you two relatives?"—asked him, although he didn't need to, but he couldn't let his façade fall.

"No, but just as close"—answered him dejected.

"Hm. Too bad, I'm sorry for you, but you should be grateful that you are still alive and go on with your life. Once again, what is your name?"

"…Ranmaru…I…I don't know what to do now"

"I assume that's why the Hokage sent you to me, come Ranmaru, let's begin your training"—he turned around and walked back to the training area. Ranmaru looked at his retreating back and considered his escape options, soon he realized he had none, he wasn't fast enough and would be captured back before he could make it to the walls, he sighed in defeat and followed the blond, resigned to his new situation.

.-._.-._.

Hokage's office.

Hiruzen sat behind his desk, he had just dismissed the ANBU after their return from wherever it is that they found the swordsmen, and gave them the rest of the day for their trouble. He looked at the swords on his desk and couldn't help but smile, yes, two men had died, but the key was now closer to being fully protected, only two pieces were left for the second key to be safe.

At that moment the ANBU that he had sent to deliver the kid to Naruto's clone appeared in front of him and bowed in greeting.

"Hokage-sama the kid has been safely delivered to Uzumaki-san"

"Good, did he say anything?"—the ANBU nodded.

"Uzumaki-san requested me to deliver this message. If you find out the location of Kisame from the seven swordsmen, he asked to ignore him until another time"—the Hokage nodded, he remembered one of his talks with the blond where the blue skinned swordsman was mentioned, Naruto said he would deal with him himself—"he also said that if you wish you could also send your grandson Konohamaru to him"—this puzzled the Hokage, until he remembered what it was that Naruto was teaching the other two kids, he considered it. After all it would be an invaluable skill for his grandson to have, regardless of which element he was taught—"…bring Konohamaru here"

"Yes Hokage-sama"—said the ANBU as he bowed and shunshined away. What was the problem with today? He was delivering kids from one place to another.

.-._.-._.

Forest of Death.

Sasuke had the last watch just after Naruto, so far nothing outstanding had happened. The blond himself, although he was sleeping, was keeping watch through a clone, this fact just made the Uchiha angry for many reasons, first was that Uzumaki could withstand a whole night without sleep when he, an Uchiha, could barely stay awake after just one third of it, then there was the lack of trust, sure he didn't trust his teammates, but he was an Uchiha, they should know he was able to keep watch by himself. This enraged him so that he was unable to restrain from growling after thinking about it.

There was still one hour left before dawn and he had to wake his teammates. At this point in time the Sannin, who had remained silent all night, started to stir, this was another reminder for the Uchiha's hurting ego; this man, this…Sannin, had tossed him aside as if nothing, like a worthless fly, whereas the trice damned Naruto had defeated the snake summoner not long after, and barely scratched to boot!

The Naruto clone, from his point of view noticed Orochimaru's movement and dispelled itself, waking the real Naruto up. At the camp the blond stood up and walked towards the Sannin who by now was starting to take in his surroundings, and surely planning how to escape. Sasuke, determined to not be put aside this time, stood up as well and walked side by side with Naruto, the blond noticed this and refrained from scoffing at his antics.

Orochimaru, just having waken up, noticed them approaching, the Uchiha walked as if he owned the place, those arrogant bastards were so full of themselves, but this one was worthless, that much he could tell after their 'fight'. He diverted his attention to the other genin, the blond, he was a prize he would have one way or another. Unfortunately he was still groggy so he failed to notice that he was lacking two important limbs, so no way was he escaping his fate, not after all the measures the team had gone to ensure his permanent imprisonment. He tried to speak, but the gag prevented him from doing so.

"You finally awake there?"—asked Naruto—"took your sweet time, didn't you? Don't worry, your ANBU friends should be arriving soon, they are anxious to see you"

"What are you talking about Uzumaki?"—asked the Uchiha.

"Well, yesterday uncle Orochimaru here was kind enough to release huge amounts of chakra so I'm guessing that ANBU was alerted of his presence here, unfortunately we restrained his chakra just when we defeated him so they had nothing to follow him, let alone at night, but now that morning the sun is about to rise they should be on the move again and it won't be long before they find us, and when they do, it will be your end snake bastard. I made sure that you had no way to escape, your precious arms are gone so you can't do jutsu at all, your legs are useless after Sakura obliterated them once again, you can't restore your body using that gross jutsu with your mouth shut, and just in case your chakra is totally restrained, you can't do shit"—Naruto purposefully let out that he was also surrounded by a barrier keyed to him so that there was no way for the Sannin to escape, it would be foolish to reveal all their measures, just in case. Orochimaru just glared at him, though inwardly he had to admit that the situation was indeed against him, so unless one of his minions appeared and was brave enough to try and free him, he was screwed, but with him clearly defeated and in plain sight the odds were dim.

At that moment some bushes surrounding the camp started moving, and not soon later the genin they had met before, Kabuto, appeared, Orochimaru refrained from smirking, though the gag would have prevented him from doing so all the same.

"Hey guys, sorry for startling you"—greeted the shinobi—"I heard you talking and decided to see if you could help me, I ran out of…my, is that Orochimaru of the Sannin? What is he doing here? How did you guys capture him?"

_Is he for real?—_thought Naruto—_that must be the lamest excuse I have ever heard, even Kakashi has better lies…ok, maybe not, but still it's lame!_

.-._.-._.

"ACHOOohu!"

"Are you alright Kakashi?"—asked Asuma, they were on their way to meet with the other jounin instructors, something they did just to pass the time while their teams were at the exam.

"Um…yeah, I must be in someone's mind right now, I hope it's a cute lady"

.-._.-._.

"ACHOO!"—sneezed Naruto and he was covered in a smoke screen, suddenly substituted by a gorgeous blond girl—"what the hell!"—another smoke screen and he was back to normal.

"Kabuto-san, glad to see you are alright"—greeted Sakura, who had woken up just before he arrived, totally ignoring the freakish thing that had just happened—"yes, he is Orochimaru, Naruto fought and defeated him yesterday"—a dark look passed through Kabuto's face for a brief moment, which left two of the members of team 7 wondering if they had imagined it.

"So, Kabuto-san, you said you wanted help, you had run out of…sorry what did you say it was?"—asked Naruto, inwardly smirking.

"Ummm…medic supplies, and I need them urgently since one of my teammates is injured"

_Bullshit! You are a medi-nin for kamies' sake, if there is something you can't run out of, it's medic supplies!_

_**Hey kit, why don't we have some fun with him, I mean play along and see what we can do with him. It should be fun!**_

_I guess, alright, for your amusement I shall do so, be grateful fur ball _"OK, Kabuto-san, I will get some for you, I believe we had some stuff packed"—he walked back to where they had been sleeping, Kabuto smirked at his naivety. The sannin's assistant knew very well who was the most dangerous of the three genin, and that said target was giving him the back was an advantage that he wasn't planning on letting pass, his master had clearly failed at marking the Uchiha, so every plan related to him was void now, they would need to go for the most drastic measures, meaning killing his team and kidnap Sasuke, it only meant that they wouldn't get to watch the Uchiha during the finals, the rest of the plan was still on.

Kabuto lost no time and rocketed against Naruto, faster than most jounin would be able to, Naruto smirked; he really hadn't done this in a long while and was eager to see the traitor's face when he was done with him. As soon as he was on reach, Kabuto made to stab Naruto on the neck with one of his scalpels, he smirked; the blond had not had time to react at all. That smirk faded when the corpse disappeared in a smoke screen and then panic when he felt a pair of hands capture his ankles.

"**Doton: Shinjuu Zanshu**(**Headhunter**)!"—Naruto called the jutsu as he dragged his opponent's body underground and he revealed himself—"you didn't think I would trust you that easily, did you? We barely know you and, village aside, we are all enemies while we are in this forest"—Kabuto looked flabbergasted for a second, before smirking and melting, turning into mud. Naruto expected this and quickly, using the same mud Kabuto had just provided, created a clay shield behind him, blocking the scalpels aimed at his lungs.

On the camp, Sasuke and Sakura both observed as Kabuto launched himself against the blond and how the later tricked him and captured him underground, just for him to turn into mud and Naruto making a shield to block an attack coming from the other side of the field. At this point Sasuke was still stunned by the speed of the match, it hurt his pride but he had to admit that he couldn't match that velocity. On the other hand Sakura had already disappeared, melting into the shadows. Kabuto noticed this, he was not about to commit the same mistakes as his master and started to look around for any signs of the pinkette, he had to give up his search when, one: he found nothing to track her down, and two: he had to evade the incoming stone stalactites that Naruto had just thrown at him.

He jumped to the right to dodge but as he landed, an ice pool formed just below his foot and he slipped, from the shadows Sakura smirked as the enemy fell to her trap, an iron-tread web that would capture and shred him to meat strips. Alas that wasn't to be as Kabuto quickly substituted himself with a log and threw several scalpels to the pinkette who dodged and too soon melted into the shadows once again, much to his dismay.

He had, once again to dodge as several fireballs aimed at him burnt down the branch he had been standing at, he thought it had been Naruto but when he looked, instead of blond hair he found jet black, Sasuke had finally snapped out of it and joined the battle. Shot, his chances at survival had just gone down a peg or two.

He was trying to come out with a plan to escape, but he had no time as several more fireballs approached, as fast as he could he ran through hand seals and created a stone wall in front of him to block the attack. However, due to the wall he didn't see Naruto land besides Sasuke and with sturdy movements of his hands took down the wall, leaving him uncovered, he tried to dodge but both his hands had just been seized with iron-tread to the nearest trees rendering him immobile, helplessly he saw as the fireballs flew towards him and struck him fully, the hidden shuriken inside the fire piercing his skin.

Team 7 looked victorious at how the fire covered their enemy, however when the fire extinguished they saw that instead of Kabuto trapped in the treads there was a human-shaped clay figure, Naruto quickly looked at their prisoner, glad that he was still there, although he was now unbound, only the gag remained, fortunately.

"Kabuto must have tried to free him before escaping, but was unable to take Orochimaru out of the barrier I created for him. I don't think Kabuto is nearby anymore"

"I don't sense him around"—announced Sakura, who because of her perfect chakra control was able to sense chakra to a low degree.

"Let's bind this scum again and get him ready for the ANBU"

.-._.-._.

A short distance from team 7's camp an exhausted Kabuto appeared on top of a branch, he had used too much chakra during the battle and had forced a too fast a substitution with a mud clone, he had then attempted to rescue his master, but for some reason he was unable to take him along, maybe he had lost more chakra than he thought and taking Orochimaru was too much for him. He looked at his arms; he had been burnt somewhat by those damned fireballs before he could substitute himself, he had misjudged team 7 and paid dearly. The scary part was that when he took a quick glance before departing, they had not been winded at all, a little bit agitated, but in perfect condition, that was scary, just how powerful were they?

.-._.-._.

**I haven't abandoned and never will, as I said I have been kind of busy so had not time to write at all. That and I had too many other stories to catch up to, anyway, I hope you liked the fight.**

**I will update my other stories soon, Werefox may take a little bit since I have to rewrite a chapter from the very beginning but I promise it will be soon…soon meaning at some point during the next month =P**

**This is an answer to Zay's review, since he reviewed anonymously. In your review you said, and I quote "In Chap 2 Kyu yells 58, should be 62 (54+4+4)." The thing is that 54 is Naruto's age when he traveled to the past, and the comment you are referring to is made when he is 4 years old, thus he is 58, I assume you thought this was said when he was 8, but he doesn't become 8 until chapter 3. About the 'tug' thing it wasn't anything like what you mention, I actually thought it was the right word, I wasn't aware of the meaning of tug, I thought it meant thug, thanks for the correction I will fix it as soon as I can, though I can't find the part where Naruto calls 'jashan' to the tiger, could you please point it out next time you review if it is not much trouble? About the last mistake…I don't like math that much. About the Sasuke thing, well, Naruto is 67 and he participated in the fourth shinobi war initiated by Madara, he saw his friends die, and it became worse with the second coming of Yami, that much can change a person, though I have not been able to capture it in this story, and Sasuke openly declared he was going to destroy Konoha, meaning he had no salvation anymore, that's what was imprinted in Naruto's mind after all that, it's only reflecting now that he came back. He doesn't give a damn about Sasuke because in his mind Sasuke can't be saved. It's a grudge he has against someone who betrayed his trust in the worse way and threatened everything he held dear, he just can't let go of that grudge that easily. True, that's very anti-Naruto but as I said, he changed somewhat.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Hi everyone, I got you another chap, but before that I want to mention that I got an idea for a challenge, you might want to look my profile to read about it. No, it's not the Naruto x OP crossover, it's the other, but if you want to take that one it's good too. =)**

.-._.-._.

Ch. 14: Mischievous spider.

Forest of Death.

After their encounter with Kabuto, it wasn't long before the ANBU finally found them and were surprised by the fact that they had captured and effectively neutralized Orochimaru; the leader of the ANBU squad made sure to get their names for recommendation on a later date; before they took the Sannin for imprisonment. After that, team 7 departed to look for a team, they had put off getting the scroll for too long; they could be in the tower already if not for that.

Unfortunately, the fact that they had already lost too much time played against them, too few teams were left at this point on the exam, though Naruto wasn't worried, he knew of a team that was actively looking for them, Orochimaru's other minions.

The sound team on the other hand had trouble looking for the Uchiha they were ordered to kill, they knew from which gate that team entered the forest, but lost them almost immediately and apparently they were experts at covering their tracks 'cause they hadn't found any since, their most recent clue, and they weren't even sure if it was theirs, was a large amount of chakra released at some point during the first day, but they took too long to get to that place and by the time team 7 wasn't there anymore and their track were once more lost.

It was the middle of the second day already and neither team had found their target, which was alarming in team 7's case since they didn't have a specific one.

"Maybe we should stay in one place and wait, maybe another team will find us instead"—suggested Sakura after their long search.

"Maybe, it's weird, we haven't found any other team. I know we are already too far behind with the timing, but we have found neither corpses nor teams that have lost their scroll already"—commented Naruto—"we should have found someone by now"

"You're right, it is weird"—agreed his pinkette girlfriend.

"Then let's find somewhere to stay and prepare some traps, the longer we take discussing this the longer it will take us to get an earth scroll"—said the Uchiha.

"Too bad we couldn't get Orochimaru to puke his scroll"

"Eww, Naruto! Don't make such gross comments"

"Sorry Sa-chan"

.-._.-._.

Forest of Death's tower.

"Report!"—shouted the purple haired kunoichi as she stormed into the surveillance room, where the Hokage and an ANBU squad was already discussing the recent events. Anko forgot all etiquette and walked towards Hiruzen—"Old man, what happened? I know that…that bastard, is here in the forest, why did you call me that is so important it can't wait until I find him, he is somewhere out there in the forest. Let me go look for him, it's not fair that you are…"

"Anko calm down!"—ordered the village leader—"yes, Orochimaru was in the forest, he attacked a genin team, he was, apparently, after Uchiha Sasuke, what for is yet to be known, but it will be discovered once Ibiki is finished with him"

"You mean…you got him?"

"He has been already captured and disabled, yes. However the credit is not for me to take, it was a genin who fought and defeated him"

"A genin!"—half shouted half asked Anko, outraged by the prospect of the Sannin being defeated by a mere genin—"who!"

"Uzumaki Naruto took care of everything, he and Haruno Sakura effectively restricted him, severed his arms, his legs were rendered useless, his chakra has been sealed and other measures have been taken, you don't need to worry"

"But, how could a mere genin…it makes no sense!"

"I would totally back that statement up, Mitarashi-san"—said one of the ANBU, the leader of the squad—"if not for the fact that my squad was the one that took the traitor into custody. They couldn't have defeated a team that was able to defeat the Sannin if they weren't said team, there is no way they could have faked everything, so they were the ones that faced him. I already have their names ready for recommendation once the exams are over, they would make excellent hunters"

"I agree, but it will be up to them to accept the position"—said the old Sarutobi.

"I want to meet them"—said Anko—"I want to be informed as soon as that team enters the tower"

.-._.-._.

Team 7 found a place to stay; problem was that no team appeared all day long, so by the end of it they were grumpy and frustrated. As night fell Sakura decided to establish the watch rounds, of course she was to take the first; that way she got to sleep uninterrupted until it was time to leave; then Sasuke; she might have made her boyfriend take the second watch last night, but she wasn't about to make him take the middle round again, you just didn't rest enough that way; and finally Naruto. So with their schedule established they decided to sleep.

Meanwhile, the sound team had found them while they were finishing some of the traps; that was unfortunate since those wouldn't work with them anymore, but they still got the ones placed before they arrived. Orochimaru's minions decided to wait until it was night to make their move, having to confront only one of them while the other slept was best for them, when night finally arrived and the two males departed to get some rest they made they acted.

Half an hour after the boys of the team went to sleep, Sakura hear some bushes rustle and prepared for an attack, she seemingly relaxed when what came out was just a squirrel, however she tensed again as she felt chakra coming from the animal, which was advancing towards her; for an animal that was a really strange behavior since most tended to avoid humans, and predators usually stalked their prey before attacking, so she didn't doubt a bit when she threw the kunai that ended up rasping the rodent's top, effectively shaving it and taking the explosive tag from its back; the squirrel was so frightened, first those jerks put a tag on her and then this beast shaved her fur, so she did the only thing she could think of and ran away. Sakura, once the tag blew, stood up and took out a pair of kunai to use as knives.

"Good, I was already thinking that we wouldn't find anyone"—said the pinkette, happy that a team had finally shown up, as well as exited, she thought about waking the boys, who for some reason were still sleep after the explosion, but Naruto had been taking care of everything so far and she wanted to make some real contribution to the team, she could always wake them if things got out of hand.

_Well, it seems that Sa-chan wants to take on them herself—_thought Naruto who was awake since the clone he left behind dispelled as soon as the explosive tag was taken care of.

_**Do you think it's wise to let your vixen face them alone?**_

_Yeah, she can take care of them no problem, I will intervene if things get ugly, thought I doubt they will_

_**Alright, whatever you say**_

The Oto team decided to let themselves be seen, a big mistake if you were facing a stealth specialist and trap expert like Sakura, not that they knew that. Sakura saw the three genin appear from within the woods and inwardly smirked, they were hers now.

"How cute, a little wannabe protecting her teammates while those lazy bums sleep"—mocked the kunoichi—"this will take no time at all, mind if I take care of her, guys?"

"Be my guest"—said the bandaged one and just as he finished the girls charged at Sakura.

As Kin got closer she stepped on one of the traps that the team had not been able to see, she felt the wire's tension under her feet and quickly jumped to evade whatever she had activated, however the trap was designed to launch several wood stakes and she was directly in the line of fire, and being on air she had no means to dodge. Zaku saw this and quickly ran through hand seals and sent a strong gush of air that effectively took Kin out of the danger. Sakura smirked, she wouldn't let them get away that easily; this was her field! She launched a kunai towards Kin, but it failed and barely cut a bit of her hair, what the sound team failed to see was the real target, a node of several wires that snapped once the kunai hit them and then all hell broke loose.

Kin found herself once again as the target of several stakes, this time coming from above, she quickly dodged them but a severed branch, a big one at that, hit her and sent her crashing into the ground, where her doom would have found her if not for a desperate **kawarimi**. Her teammates were not faring better, both of them were victims as well of trap after trap, forced to separate and unable to help each other; flying stakes, falling logs and branches, kunais with explosive tags, Zaku was even covered with oil but prevented being burned, it was pandemonium for them, and Sakura barely had to move a finger, just throw one kunai here and there to force her enemies to certain location from time to time. In the end of everything, after 10 or so minutes, the sound team landed in the center of the field, exhausted of having to dodge too often for too long, they had been able to prevent most damage, got some heavy scratches but noting too serious.

"Ha…ha…that was…damn…ha…but your traps…ha…did nothing, girly"—mocked Dosu—"though you have…ha…angered me"—however the smirk on Sakura's face unnerved him, then he noticed, all his teammates were in the center of the field, and after all those traps that couldn't be good. Sakura, with a kunai cut another wire right behind her, Dosu tried to escape, but his realization came too late, more wood stakes flew through the field, this time accompanied with iron-wire with several tags hanging from them, the sound trio tensed and prepared to dodge once again.

Most of the stakes however weren't aimed at them, a few they had to dodge but wasn't too hard, this though only served to unnerve Dosu even more. As the team kept dodging they were getting closer to each other, and when they had no more space to keep dodging they were effectively tied with the wire, all their limbs bound and unable to move.

"You better tell me who has the scroll"—came Sakura's voice, but not from the girl they were seeing, the voice came from above, Kin looked and spotted a second Sakura standing on the net they were trapping in, then looked at the other one—"a clone"—explained the one above—"as I said you better tell me, if you don't, well, it won't be pretty…for you that is, and don't even bother trying to escape, these tags along the wire restrict and absorb your chakra. One of those is directly connected to an exploding tag that will blow once the tags have nothing to absorb from you and then you will be no more. So if you want to still have a shot at being chuunin you better speak fast"—it was Zaku who spoke.

"Dosu has it, inside his jacket, left side"—Dosu growled at him but was unable to retaliate given their current position. Sakura smirked and approached the bandaged genin, as she made to search his jacked through the wires, Dosu tried to force his escape, which only tightened the grip of the net.

"Oh, I forgot to mention that, right? If you move it will only get worse"—then she kept looking, until she finally found the scroll and was delighted to see that it was an earth one, meaning they had to look no longer—"yay! It's an earth scroll, finally, what with having to fight Orochimaru and not being able to search because of having to see that he didn't escape"—she walked back to the camp and put the scroll where they had theirs, totally ignoring the dumbfounded faces of the Oto shinobi.

"Hey! Are you going to leave us like this? I told you where the scroll was"—shouted Zaku.

"Oh? Ah! That's right, no, I think I will leave you there, if I let you leave you could try something funny"

"But the exploding tag! Or are you going to kill us after we cooperated?"

"I lied"—she stated boringly—"there is no exploding tag, but you will indeed be drained by the time I free you"—and she couldn't help but laugh and the face Zaku had at that revelation.

.-._.-._.

Morning came and team 7 decided to free the Oto shinobi; Naruto knew that they were with Orochimaru, but his teammates didn't so he had no choice but accept to release the trio, who by morning were unconscious because of chakra exhaustion. After that the whole team departed to reach the tower, they took no more than an hour to do so and pass the exams, finally, after two whole days. However as they entered the actual tower they were confronted by the very scary Mitarashi Anko, who fixed her gaze upon one Uzumaki Naruto for several seconds before moving, graved him by the collar of his shirt and shunshined away.

"HEY!"—shouted an outraged Sakura, but silence was her answer. She tried to sense her boyfriends chakra, but either they weren't in the tower or there was a place inside that she couldn't reach with her limited skills, frustrated she scoffed and walked away, leaving behind a perplex Uchiha.

.-._.-._.

**I hope you like it, R&R.**


	16. Chapter 16

Ch. 15: Preliminaries

Naruto was stunned, this woman was crazy! Anko had just graved him as he and his team entered the tower and transported him to a room that, to be honest, freaked him out; the only thought running through his head was _WHAT THE FUCK! _Such was his surprise that he didn't notice when she handcuffed him to a bed, his arms extended so that he couldn't make hand seals, as well as his legs.

_Handcuff? Bed?...God, not again!_

_**Oh yeah, this is why I like this vixen!**_

_Shut up, you damn overgrowth hare!_

_**Hey! I'm not a hare!**_

_Your ears say otherwise!_

_**Leave my ears out of this!**_

_Oh no!_

_**Here it comes, this girl is my kind of girl alright**_

_No,no,no,no,no, damn it! __Whose was the idea for __those pills! Fuck it!_

_**Relax, it's not like you can do anything, you tried to resist before, what makes you think that you stand a chance when you are 8 years younger than back then?**_

_Relax? Do you know what Sa-chan will do to me if she finds out? I want to have children you know?_

Anko towered over him and forcibly made him swallow the pill she had in her hand. Now, normally Kyuubi would expel or eliminate any substance that entered Naruto's body, that is unless the Kyuubi liked the effects of that substance, like, let's say a potent aphrodisiac that makes you lose your mind and think only of sex for as long as your body lasts to digest it, Naruto was just thankful that he had a quick metabolism, although that gratefulness was lost when he forgot about it and the first thing he saw was Anko undressing.

"Easy kid, you will enjoy this, think of it as my reward"—she said as she leaned over him.

.-._.-._.

AN: I would write the lemon scene, there should be no problem since I rated this M from the beginning, but to be franc I'm lazy =)

.-._.-._.

"You…you…"—said Naruto, unable to articulate a full intelligent sentence—"you damn raped me!"

"Hmm? Calm down kid, it's just sex, I wanted to reward you for kindly defeating that snake bastard"—answered Anko besides him.

"I'm 13 years old for kamies' sake!"

_**67 if anything you are older than her**_

_Shut up you damn traitor!_

"Oh come on boy, it's not like you didn't enjoy it, and I admit I wasn't expecting that I too enjoyed it. You are a damn sex machine! And at such a young age, I must say I'm jealous of pinky"

"You drugged me"

"That thing only let's your lust get loose"

"Sa-chan is going to kill me"

"Geez, ungrateful brat…I wasn't that bad, was I?"—asked she concerned.

"I can't say, you just took my virginity you know?"

_**For a second time, how many guys can say that?**_

"It's not that I didn't like it…it's just that you didn't have to do that…I mean, a simple 'thank you' would have been enough, not to mention less threatening to my health"

"Not for me, I'm not like that, and I wanted a go with the one who took Orochimaru, and you didn't disappoint"

"…I'm not going to do it again with you"

"Oh pooh, and you were so good too"—she fake pouted—"…and if I say please?"

"I need to go to Sa-chan, she is surely going to kill me, and the longer I take the more painful it will be"—he then stood up, Anko had taken the handcuff away once the drug had taken effect, took his clothes and dressed—"shot, you ruined my shirt, I will have to be like this for the rest of the exam"

"Stop whining already, will you?"

"Bitch"

"Thank you"

.-._.-._.

"Where have you been?"—asked Sakura to her boyfriend when they finally met—"and why is your T-shirt tore open?"—her voice was calm, but you know what they say about storms.

"Erm…would you believe if I told you it's not my fault?"—he asked nervous.

"Hardly"—her eyes narrowed and Naruto felt a lump in his throat.

"Well…the thing is that…well, that crazy lady…"

"Yes?"

"She kind of…"

"I will give you three seconds to start talking, I'm not happy and you better don't screw up, 1…"

"Well, please don't kill me…"

"…2…"

"Sa-chan, you know, I was thinking that after this exam is over we can, maybe…"

"3!"

"Shetookmetoaroom, handcuffedanddrugged, thenrapedme. IswearIwasntabletodonothing, sopleasespareme"—he took cover to protect himself from the explosion, but when nothing happened he looked and immediately regretted it. Sakura was fuming with pure rage.

"How dare that bitch? I will kill her, I will tear her breasts and then feed them to Akamaru and feed her with his feces afterwards!"

_**I can't believe she understood what you said, I hardly did.**_

…_and I swear that if you let me live after I won't eat as much ramen, I will change, I will become a better man…_

_**Kid?**_

…_and will donate money to the orphanage, I will even talk to the caretaker, even though she threw me out the first time…_

_**Geez, you are so whipped.**_

_Whit a woman like her, can you blame me?_

…_**point taken.**_

Sakura's rant about how she would make Anko pay for abusing her boyfriend, before her, went on for a full hour, and that was only because she ran out of ideas, if not for that she would have as well kept going until the preliminaries. Unfortunately for him, as soon as that happened, her focus changed towards him.

…_As I was saying, I promise I will be a good man from now on, I will eat my veggies and…_

That day who didn't believe in ghosts changed their view right then and there, for such cries could only come from something unearthly.

.-._.-._.

Final day of the second exam.

The teams that had made it to the tower in time were formed up; there were a total of 7 teams assembled. The rookie 9; as Naruto remembered they were called, and team 9; which was Rock Lee's team, the sand team was there too, he was hoping to fight Gaara, he didn't want Lee to get through what happened to him last time, even if that fight was one of the bests he has ever seen in both timelines. The remaining two teams though, he remembered that Kabuto's team and the sound trio had been present this day, however they weren't, the sixth team he didn't know where they were from, at the front was a kid who was bandaged from head to toe, not a hair could be seen and it was unnerving, the kid's teammates were two kunoichi, twins, lucky bastard, the final team was from Ame, he remembered them, they had ambushed his team twice during the exam in the first timeline, they were going to fall first.

Finally the Hokage's speech ended and a sick looking shinobi took the stage and announced that a preliminary test was going to take place right then and there in order to shorten the number of participants. The scoreboard behind him started to run through names until it stopped and showed two, Sasuke was going to fight first against one of Oboro's teammates, the two fighters remained in the arena, and the rest of the participants went to a second floor from where they could watch the matches.

Naruto wasn't really interested in the fight, he knew that Sasuke would manage, he was weaker than in the first timeline, but not that weak, so he decided to just sit and wait for his turn. However, before he could relax, he felt the hairs of his back stand on end, he turned around and saw the bandaged kid glaring, was he glaring? With all those bandages it is impossible to tell, and focusing killer intent on him, the blond narrowed his eyes and sent his own towards him, to his surprise the strange kid was unaffected. Their fight of wills was interrupted when Hayate called the match; Sasuke had won, albeit barely, he was weaker than Naruto had thought. The next match was announced, Shino was to face Kiba, this got Naruto's attention, if he wasn't going to fight Kiba, then who?

_**Maybe we have changed things too much?**_

_Who knows? Doesn't matter, it's just a minor change, nothing too big._

Shino won the fight by draining both Kiba and Akamaru with his bugs, as soon as the medics took the Inuzuka the board dashed through names again, Kankuro against the other Oboro's teammate. The fight was nothing special, in the end Kakuro made short work of the Ame shinobi. Then the second surprise for Naruto came, Tenten against Ino.

_I don't like Ino but…this will be a wakeup call for her._

And as he predicted, Ino lost big time against Tenten's weapons, she ended up a bloody mess, but was still breathing so she would be alright.

"I hope Ino-chan will be alright"—said Sakura next to him.

"She will be fine, most of those wound were superficial"

"Nevertheless, I will go visit her later"

"Want me to go with you?"

"If you don't want to it's alright, I know you two don't get along too well"

"You sure? If you want me to go…"—she shook her head.

"No, I don't want you doing things just because I want you to, well; taking me to dates is a different matter"

"Alright, then you go see her and I will prepare something for later"

"Ok"—she kissed his cheek and gazed to the arena once again.

The next match was another surprise for him, this time not because it was different from the first timeline, but because it was the same, he was half expecting for this match not to happen, Hinata was going against her cousin yet again. During the match Neji went on with his fate speech, although the present Hinata was more confident and completely ignored his rant and tried to talk him out of it, but stubbornness has been always a male trait so it came again to a fight, again Neji won, but this time Hinata was able to land several blows to him, and she didn't end up half dead.

The following fight didn't surprise him that much, Shikamaru and Chouji fought each other, in the end Shikamaru got the upper hand with one of his strategies, not that it was unexpected. After that the names on the board made him sigh in relief, it appeared the Lee was going to be spared as well, for Gaara was fighting Oboro instead, though you can hardly call that a fight, Oboro didn't stand a chance at all.

"Could Naruto Uzumaki and Gufuu Tatsumaki get to the arena?"—called Hayate. Finally it was Naruto's turn, he walked towards the stairs, and so did his opponent, the bandaged kid, when they were close he heard the bandaged boy whisper.

"Just as you ruined my life, I will ruin yours"—Naruto stopped; the bandaged boy didn't and kept walking towards the arena.

_What the hell?_

_**Somehow his chakra is familiar, but I cannot figure out from where I know it.**_

.-._.-._.

**And I will leave it at that, I know this chapter is shorter than what I usually write, but I wanted to make the next one be the whole fight between those two and there will be a new development. I hope you like it when I explain.**

**Also, I wanted to inform that I'm actually not working on Werefox as I promised; I have been too focused on this story, ideas keep coming for SB every time I try to write a new chapter for Werefox. So I wanted to say sorry, it seems the new chapter of Werefox will take longer than expected.**

**R&R**


	17. Chapter 17

Ch. 16: My heaven will be your hell.

"The match between Naruto Uzumaki from Konoha and Tatsumaki Gufuu from...Uzugakure? Hokage, are you certain of this?"—asked the proctor, the Hokage just nodded gravely, Naruto stared dumbfounded at his opponent, it was impossible, no survivor from Uzugakure had ever risen during the first timeline, let alone appear during the chuunin exams, what was going on?—"very well, and Tatsumaki Gufuu from Uzugakure will take place now, are both participants ready?"—Gufuu nodded, Naruto didn't trust his voice, so did the same—"begin"

Tatsumaki didn't lose a second, he charged immediately at Naruto, who was still shocked by the revelation and was hard pressed to dodge in time.

"What is it Uzumaki? Surprised?"—said the Uzu shinobi as both collided in a taijutsu fight—"don't be, I wasn't supposed to be here. But when I was informed that you were going to participate in this exam, I just couldn't let past the opportunity. I have been waiting for a chance to take my revenge on you"

"What are you talking about?"—asked the blond as they kept fighting—"I have never met anyone from Uzu, and if I have I sure as hell have never done anything against them"—he finally landed a blow against his opponent and sent him flying towards the other end of the arena, there was something wrong though, something weird. When he struck him, he felt nothing.

"Oh, but you have Uzumaki"—came Gufuu's voice from within the dust—"your actions took everything away from me, it's your fault that I am like this!"—then, surprising the blond, a white mass flew towards him, he was able to catch it before he was hit by the projectile, but once he had it in his hand he noticed what it was, it was a fist, or at least bandages shaped like a fist, for there was nothing inside, he noticed too that the bandages were still connected to the cloud of dust that was slowly fading, however he had no time to muse about what was going on since the bandages he was holding quickly came to life and enveloped his hand.

A second white fist flew towards him, this time he tried to dodge instead of catch it, however it was as if the fist had life of its own, it chased his free hand and enveloped it too. Then he found himself being pulled forward, only to be met by a kick to the stomach and sent to the air again, just to be slammed against the ground afterwards, the bandages covering his arms released him and slithered back to Guffu, Naruto noticed that the bandages were actually his hands!

He groaned in pain, he had been too surprised by it all that he hadn't been able to counter at all. At least now he knew he couldn't take this lightly, though he was still confused by the attitude of his opponent.

"I have never met you; I have only been out of the village on two occasions. The first was during a mission to wave, the second was an S-Rank mission, and I didn't meet anyone then, so, either you are confused or crazy, whatever the case, your accusation is unfounded"

"Unfounded? UNFOUNDED?"—shouted the mummy in rage—"you damn idiot! Do you really think that your so called plan to make everything better was inconsequential?"—at this Naruto's eyes narrowed, did this person know?—"your very first act made me what I am! You took my life away from me! I will make you pay, and defeating you here will be only the first of many things to come, mark my words Uzumaki, you will loathe the day you came back!"—then he charged once again.

.-._.-._.

"What is that guy going on about?"—asked Sakura, not really expecting an answer.

"Who knows, but he seems to be convinced of whatever he is saying"—commented Kakashi—"and judging by how this fight started Naruto might be in trouble"

"Hn"

.-._.-._.

Back in the arena the fight had intensified, Naruto was now using his element bending skills, wind and earth bending seemed to be useless against this foe, who only ignored the attacks as if he hadn't made them at all, fire on the other hand was answered by Gufuu dodging, so Naruto concentrated mainly in casting flames, but seeing as Tatsumaki kept getting close it was a difficult task, it was a shame that the arena didn't have a water source things would be so much easier.

Gufuu was able to get close enough to Naruto quickly after a wide range attack from the blond, who barely had time to dodge, but spare to form a rasengan and shoving it into his opponent chest. The attack hit its mark and Gufuu was sent away, or at least his bandages were, which ended up scattered, Gufuu's body though was nowhere to be seen.

"Are you happy?"—came the kid's voice, surprisingly from where the bandages were, Naruto looked in that direction and could see how the bandages slithered and started wrapping air, then he saw how a head formed from those bandages—"are you happy to see what it is that you made me? I wasn't supposed to be like this"—by this point and arm was already formed by the bandages—"you…and your stupid pet! You both took my body away from me"

"I…I don't know what you are talking about!"

"Don't play fool with me! Remember 13 years ago what did you do?"

"How should I know? I was born that year"

"No you weren't, I was, you though, you changed nature's order, you decided that nature could shove her rules up her ass"

.-._.-._.

"Hmm, it seems that this kid has his mind set on the idea that Naruto did something to him before he could even crawl"—commented Kakashi.

"That's foolish, how could Naruto do anything back then?"

"I doubt he could, but somehow this kid believes otherwise"

.-._.-._.

_**Kid, I think I know who this 'Gufuu' is, and I doubt that is his name at all.**_

_Well, duh! I think I know too, but how did it happen is the question._

"Have you already snapped out of it?"—sneered the mummy, now fully restored—"or are you planning to keep playing the fool?"

"I don't care what you believe I did to you, I won't lose this match"

"I believe nothing, you already know what I'm talking about, yet you won't even apologize. Fine, be that way"—again he charged at the blond who got a scroll in his hand and revealed a seal inside, the bandaged kid didn't know what it was, nor did he care, he was too focused on attacking Naruto to give a shit about a stupid scroll. A stream of water shot from the seal and Naruto thought he got him—"That was your big plan?"—came the eerie voice from behind him, however when he turned around it was far too late, he found himself wrapped in bandages, arms and legs were no longer his to control, he tried to move but it was impossible, another bandage slithered around his throat and squeezed, slowly he was running out of oxygen.

.-._.-._.

Back in the second floor the watchers observed how the mummy kid undid the bandages around his hands and they covered Naruto's body, many, who had thought that it was only an illusion when they saw no body before, were flabbergasted when once again they saw nothing under the wrappings. It was a bizarre visage, as if from the blonde's back a second body was growing. Said body bent forward and whispered something to Naruto's ear.

.-._.-._.

"Don't worry, I won't kill you, that would be just an easy out for you. No, you will live, the shame of losing here will be nothing, from now on you will walk looking behind you every second, just to see if I'm lurking in the shadows, and I will be, but you won't know, I will haunt you, and then, when I grow bored of your worry and paranoia I will seek your dismay"

_Kyuubi, some help please?—_asked Naruto in his mind, he was losing consciousness.

_**Sorry kit, this guy came prepared for this, his bandages must have a seal that prevents me from aiding you.**_

"First I will kill that whore of yours, and then the old man you care for so much, and all the while you will have to see, helpless, unable to do a thing, unable to move a single finger to aid them. The kids will go next, oh yes, I know about them, those three you are training, I won't kill them, but you will wish I had for it will be your hand that will take their lives, I can be very creative when I want to be, poor Tsunami, will be so mortified when she finds out that her son was killed by his 'nii-san', and while she is wailing for her son I will take her life, slowly and painfully, and you will know that all that suffering was because of you"—he loosened his grip on Narutos's throat a little so that he didn't faint just yet, then tightened it again.

_Any ideas? I need to get out of this fast!_

_**Nothing I can think of, the only thing that I have is look for the seals and try to destroy them, but I don't see how.**_

"Little by little I will take everything that makes you happy and tear it apart, your close ones first. Then, after your heritage is revealed, the villagers, wouldn't it be fun? You always wanted to be acknowledged, but just when they start doing so they will be killed, oh the hilarity, and even then, when you have nothing to live for you will have to keep going, your despair, your suffering, you will want to take your life and end it, but I won't let you, you won't be able to get out, each new day will bring more sorrow, and I will enjoy it. Your hell will be my heaven, every new ray of hope I will extinguish, for you don't deserve to be happy"—he then tightened his grip even more, Naruto for his part had been think about how to destroy or disable the seal that was preventing him from using Kyuubi's chakra, first he had to find it though. He decided to make a wild guess, he bit his inner lip and blood flowed inside his mouth, he then spat it out and it landed on the bandage wrapping his right arm, Gufuu felt his control over the bandage waver and reluctantly let go of the blond, lest it play against him—"blood? Clever, you found out then, I'm not surprised about that, but it will be futile, you will lose anyway"—Naruto however was ignoring him, trying to regain his breath, the metallic taste of blood covering his mouth, he looked at Tatsumaki and saw that the mummy's right arm was no more, the bandage, at least the part that formerly was his arm, was inertly laid on the ground. The blond smirked, it was going to be easy now, not because he had an advantage, he would be stupid if he thought that because his enemy had a disable limb he was going to win, no, this was going to be easy because now he knew how to defeat him.

Naruto charged at Gufuu, rasengan ready, the bandaged kid did the same, prepared to attack, when they collided Naruto was pierced with Tatsumaki's left hand, as if he had a chidori, on the shoulder, he in turn shoved the rasengan in his enemy's guts, and like before the bandages were sent flying away. The process by which the bandages slithered to reform the kid's body was repeated.

"It won't work Uzumaki, you can't win"—however when he tried to stand up he was unable to—"what?"—he looked down, by now his legs should have been complete already, however they weren't, as a matter of fact they weren't even forming at all, he then noticed a stain of blood on the bandages—"oh shit!"—those were his last words as he was engulfed by a extremely hot stream of fire, when the Naruto receded his attack the only visible thing was the scorched ground and a pile of ashes, Hayate let go a sigh, a dead shinobi during his proctoring wasn't going to look good.

"Seeing as one of the combatants is dead the winner is Naruto Uzumaki"

.-._.-._.

"Gu-kun"—said worriedly one of the bandaged kid's teammates, the other tried to comfort her.

"It will be fine, don't worry"

"Naruto-kun"—called Sakura when she saw the blond appearing at the second floor—"what was that for?"

"He said that defeating me was only the first of many things he would do, I couldn't allow him knowing that he might do something to you or someone else just to get to me, so I had to get rid of him, I didn't want to, but he showed to be unstable, you saw him"

"I guess… I'm only grateful that you are alright, but…how was it possible? He had no body"

"I don't know Sa-chan"

"Hmm, congratulations for winning"—she said, trying to get thought of the strange kid away from his mind, Naruto smiled and kissed her.

"Will Rock Lee and Temari come forward for the next match?"

.-._.-._.

**And there, sorry for the delay. R&R**


	18. Chapter 18

Ch. 17: The best gift.

A splash sounded in the hot springs as the blond teenager fell inside the pond, disturbing momentarily the peaceful environment of the place, which was restored soon afterwards as silence took over. Naruto sat in the pool relaxing, it had been two days since the preliminaries, Lee had won his fight against Temari, which was a shame since her fight with Shikamaru during the finals was the stepping stone for the development of their awkward romance, but then again, who knows? Maybe it would happen anyway. The final battle had been Sakura against "Gufuu's" teammates, he had been worried sick for her, after all Gufuu was not push over and his teammates could be just as dangerous, Sakura was facing both so it was a good reason to be worried for; fortunately his worries were proved unfounded when Sakura's stealth skills gave her the upper hand and, eventually, the triumph. After that everything had gone just as he remembered, with some changes in the tournament chart, but mostly the same, and they were released for the following month.

Both Sakura and Naruto had excused themselves just as their team exited the forest and moved on to the hospital for their visit to Ino, Naruto had waited outside while Sakura cheered her friend up, he didn't see her, not because he disliked Ino, he just didn't like her, in his past life she had been just as arrogant and superficial as she was now, so he mostly tried to stay away from her, it had, after all, taken three years before he could tolerate her, and it only happened because Sasuke betrayed the village! Of course that it was hard when she was his girlfriend's best friend. It was at that time that their sensei had appeared, Naruto then remembered their conversation.

_Flashback_

"_Oh, there you are Naruto, good, I wanted to talk with you and Sakura, where is she?"—asked the masked shinobi._

"_You say it as if you had not know we were here from the beginning sensei, she is inside talking with Ino"_

"_Hmmm…I see, then you will have to tell her for me"_

He is not going to play favorites again, is he?—_thought Naruto, mentally scowling at the bitter memory._

**It certainly seems that way—**_boomed Kyuubi's voice in his head._

"_What is it Kakashi?"—Naruto decided to play along, though the mere anger he was feeling made him slip by not calling Kakashi 'sensei' as he usually did. This detail didn't go unnoticed by the cyclops but he decided to not pay it any mind._

"_I'm going to leave the village and train Sasuke outside…"_

"_Alright, when are we leaving?"_

"_I'm sorry Naruto, I will need to give Sasuke my full attention, after his performance during his fight today it's clear to me that he is the weakest of you three…"_

Alright, that's true, so maybe he just wants his student to survive after all.

"…_and he is facing that boy, Gaara, for his first match, he is dangerous and could easily kill Sasuke, so I will train him to at least ensure that he gets out of the arena alive, but don't worry, I already got someone to train you both, they will be her…"_

"_I just hope it's not that Ebisu fellow"—muttered Naruto purposefully, he knew that was who Kakashi had gotten to train him, there were many things that had not changed from the original timeline so why would this, he had, so far, done nothing to effectively change it._

"…_erm…how do you know Ebisu, Naruto?"—asked the jounin, hoping against hope that there was somewhere someone else named Ebisu that Naruto didn't like and that it wasn't the one he knew._

"_Oh, well, he trains Konohama__ru, Jii-jii's grandson, and I met them both when I filled in my license, the guy is a pervert and I can defeat him easily" _Well, I didn't fight with him this time around but that doesn't mean I like him any better.

"_I…see. Well, then I will have to disappoint you Naruto, but that's who I got to train you, you can talk with him and fix things but for now it will have to stay that way, as for Sakura I convinced Kurenai, team 10's jounin, her student Shino got to the finals but he will be training with his clan so I was able to talk her into it, she will be here in no time"_

Well, that's new for sure.

"_I see, alright then Kakashi-sensei, I will inform Sakura of your decision, I just hope this guy has gotten better since we met or I will have to find someone else, but why can't you tell her?"_

"_Sasuke and I are leaving at once, he will need as much training as he can get or he won't stand a snowball chance in hell, and I it's not something you can't do for me, so please do so, I will see you both in a month, good luck"—and then he poofed away._

Well, some things don't change at all, geez, I will have to kick Ebisu's ass.

**And that's bad how? It's a chance to have some fun beating him.**

Do you have a grudge against him or something?

**No, just want to kick someone's ass, and he is available, so why not?**

And it has been so long since I last used my Harem no Jutsu, more than 40 years.

_End of flashback._

The jinchuriki smirked remembering what happened after he and Sakura met their temporary senseis. He had knocked down Ebisu at least five times, and the man just gave up for fear of dying from blood loss. Two days since that time, Ebisu had reluctantly backed down and let Naruto alone, Sakura had gone to train with Kurenai and they had hardly had a word, mostly because she ended up exhausted, now the blond waited in the springs to hear the perverted giggle of his one and true teacher, he didn't have to wait long, for the sound reached his ears just then, he smirked and rose from the water ready to face the hermit.

The blond, clad only with a towel around his waist walked towards the wall that separated the male side of the baths from the female's, and smiled when his prediction turned right, there spying through a hole in the wall was none other than Jiraya. Naruto walked towards him and tapped him on the shoulder, as answer he was hushed by the Sannin, still the smile remained on the blonde's face; he tapped again and received the same answer, though more exasperated this time. He then he placed himself behind the old geezer and put his hands in the tiger hand seal position, he really didn't like the idea of what he was about to do, but he had always wanted to try this on someone else, and really, Ero-sennin was just in the right position for this attack, he sighed and executed the forbidden technique.

"**Sennen Goroshi**(**1000 years of pain**)"

The next thing Jiraya knew was such pain in his…rear than he jumped in reflex and crashed with the wall in front of him, the good thing; he was looking directly into the women's side of the baths, the bad thing; the place was full with extremely rabid women; the worst part, his head was stuck in the wall and his rear was still sore. You do the math.

Several screams, hits, kicks, wails, tears, and blood gallons later the Sannin laid a bloody mess on the hot springs' floor, where Naruto was poking him with a wooden stick while keeping a mischievous smirk on his face, the man was barely able to remain conscious after such a beating, though after receiving one from Tsunade during his younger years this was nothing! He gathered his strength and spoke.

"W…what the hell…kid!"—tried to shout the man, though he was only able to manage a loud whisper.

"That's what you get for ignoring me, I was trying to talk to you but you hushed me"

"Bu…I was researching"

"I know, actually I was going to give you a secret tool you could use for your research, but I don't like being ignored"

"Who are you anyway?"

"Now you want to know, whatever, my name is Naruto Uzumaki, the walking nightmare of Konoha for no one is safe from my pranking awesomeness, future chunnin and Hokage hopeful, nice to meet you, Jiraya of the Sannin"

"You knew who I was and yet you did that?"

"Hey, I told you I don't like being ignored, besides, it doesn't matter if you are a Sannin, you are still a pervert and thus deserve the punishment"

"You are wrong, I'm not a pervert"

"Right, because Icha Icha is not a pervert thing"

"You know my books? So you are a fan!"

"Whatever made you think I am a fan? Hell, I practically sent you to your doom a while ago; you survived just because some divine intervention"

"Whatever, I'm not a pervert"

"Whatever lets you sleep at night, Ero-sennin"

"I'm a super pervert! And don't call me that"

"…Are all the Sannin this weird?"

"Have you met the others?"

"You are not a good first impression"

"Brat"

"Pervert"

"…You said something about a secret tool for research?"

"So you were paying attention! Yes I mentioned that, I was going to tell you the secret out of good will since you wrote 'The legend of the gutsy ninja' which I like, but now I don't want to"

"You actually read that? I heard no one bought it"

"I found a copy in a bazaar, it was really dusty"

"So about that tool…"

"Nope, you lost your opportunity"

"Feh, what can a brat like you achieve anyway? I'm sure it's just some crap that won't work"

"Heh, good try, but still no, reverse psychology is useless"

"Tch, cheeky runt, fine, what do you want? You are still here so you must want something"

"What if I just enjoy messing with you?"

"You just met me, it can't be that"

"I could be just because you are a pervert; I'm not fond of those"

"Gah, you are exasperating"—Naruto just sniggered at the old man's reaction.

"See, it's quite fun messing with someone else, however I do want something"

"Speak damn gaki, and depending on what your tool is I could agree"

"Well, I'm a finalist for the chunnin exam, my sensei is out of the village training one of my teammates since he is the weakest of us and has to face one of the toughest contestants, my other teammate has someone to train her, and Kakashi-sensei got someone for me too, but the guy was so weak that I defeated them in five moves, and they were the damn same move! So this is the deal, you train me for the finals, you are a Sannin after all, and I let you use my useful research omnipotent tool, R.O.T for short(**AN: any similarities with R.O.O.T is mere coincidence**)"

"And what, pray tell me, is this rot?"—at the question Naruto headed for a basket where all his belongings were and took out what seemed to be a small board.

"Here"—said the blond as he handed the item to Jiraya, said item turned out to be a screen, Jiraya looked at the kid skeptically, true, T.V. existed, but for a screen to be so small and thin, well, it wasn't common at all—"what are you waiting for, turn it on!"—Jiraya spare one last glance at him before he did as told and pressed the turn on button, the screen then displayed what seemed to be the women side of the hot springs, Jiraya was wide eyed and blood dripping already from all the research he could get with this without being found out—"change the channel"—Jiraya looked at him again.

"What?"

"Just do it, damn elderly people doesn't listen"—Jiraya pressed the button with an arrow pointing upwards and the screen immediately changed, now it displayed a bath from some house or apartment. The Sannin was ecstatic, he changed again, a bathtub, change, a hotel room, change…change…change, and every time he pressed the button another potential research spot was displayed. He was literally crying with joy now.

"Kid"—he said placing a hand on Naruto's shoulder with happy tears flowing from his eyes—"you just got yourself a teacher"

"Great, when do we begin?"

"Right now, you just gave me the greatest gift a student can give his teacher and I swear that by the time the finals are due you will be the damn champion of the tournament!"—Naruto could help but smirk, making Jiraya happy was so easy.

_Good thing I gave it to him now, I wouldn't want him spying on me when I and Sa-chan get to…that. I'm sorry for the women of Konoha but hell will froze before I let this pervert spy on me or Sakura. This will keep him busy._

_God, this kid must have high infiltration skills if he was able to pull this out, man how many places are here? Wait, is that the ANBU HQ's female dressing room? What the hell__, how was he able to do that? Still, great job gaki.—_thought the Sannin while still changing channels and planning the training he would give his new favorite, although only, student.

.-._.-._.

**Sorry for taking so long, I already explained my situation in ****the latest chapter of Werefox, anyway R&R.**


	19. Chapter 19

**EDIT: Sorry for mixing up the words, thanks to the people that corrected me.**

.-._.-._.

Ch. 18: Breaking up.

Naruto stood in front of his new teacher, they were at the same place that Naruto remembered from the first time he trained with Jiraya, yep, that was the same precipice alright, well I didn't matter, he could easily save himself if Jiraya decided to throw him in there again.

"So, what will you teach me sensei?"—said Naruto, not calling him Ero-sennin felt alien, but right now it would be hypocrite to call him that given the gift he made for the old Sannin.

"Well, since you seem to have good enough chakra control that you can already walk on water with a leaf sticking to you, which is impressive for someone so young, I will teach you a technique very rare, not many can claim to be able to use, since there is a prerequisite for it, here in the village only about 4 or 5 people can do it, many know of this technique, hell, many know how to do it, but due to the prerequisites not many can accomplish it"

"Oh, so you will teach me the summoning jutsu?"—asked the blond, Jiraya could very well be talking about another jutsu, but that's the only one Naruto knew that had a prerequisite, at that moment he smirked, Byakko had told him that he could have three contracts, one using both hands and two using one hand, it was his luck that the toad summoning contract required just one hand.

"How did you know?"—asked the Sannin, pouting because he wasn't able to brag more about the awesome jutsu he was going to teach him.

"Well, when you said prerequisite the only things that come to mind is either a bloodline, which I have none, or a contract, which I can sign, and taking into account that you are the Toad Sannin it's more or less an easy guess, I take it you want to let me sign the toad's contract?"

"Smartass"—muttered the man—"yes, I want you to sign it, summoning is a technique that can aid you in battle and give you a huge advantage, having an ally wherever you go is really helpful, and toads, among other summons are very versatile, due to their varying sizes, the smallest toad are priceless spies and the bigger ones are ferocious fighters, enough of that, let's get you started, first step is for you to sign the contract"—he then made the necessary seals for the summoning jutsu and slammed his right hand on the ground, a smoke screen covered him and when it faded away he was standing on top of a huge toad with a scroll in its mouth, the toad didn't even wait for an order, it just unrolled the extensive scroll to reveal the names in it—"this is the toads' contract and those are the names of the previous summoners, you need to…"—he didn't get to finish the instructions, he was speechless when he saw Naruto automatically begin writing his name and leaving the print of his right hand—"…alright, it seems you get things quite fast, too fast for my liking actually, you don't let me finish speaking, anyway, on with the actual jutsu, the hand seals are as follows"—he then proceeded to show him the hand seals for the summoning, which of course Naruto already knew but he didn't see the need to tell him that—"now try it, let's see what you get"—Naruto remembered what he had gotten the first time in his first run through life and mentally laughed.

_Good thing I have a huge chakra source, right furball?_

_**Shut up, I'm trying to sleep here, sure take as much as you need, it's not like I will need it any time soon.**_

_Lazy bastard._

_**Ya~wn, whatever, just shut up.**_

"Alright, let's see how you like this Ero-sensei"—Jiraya smirked at the nickname, at least this student didn't make a mockery out of his sennin status, like the blonde's father used to do—"_Summoning Jutsu_"—Naruto slammed his right hand on the ground and a huge cloud of smoke rose several meters just to reveal a gigantic red toad with a scar on the left eye.

_What in kamies' sake happened? He summoned a boss in his first try? What's going on! Now that I think about it, why am I standing here, Bunta will be mad that he wa__s summoned for nothing!—_he then started his retreat.

"**Who summoned me? Jiraya? That you? Why did you summon me here? I don't see any battle going on, what are you thinking you stupid pervert?**"—boomed the toad, Jiraya had failed in his attempt to escape.

"Hey buddy"—called a voice from over the toad's head—"Ero-sensei didn't summon you, it was me, so stop giving him credit!"

"**What? Who the hell are you? Jiraya, what's the meaning of this?"**

"He, well, you see Gamabunta, that boy right there is the new summoner of your clan"

"**What new summoner? I wasn't informed of a new summoner!"**

"I imagine you wouldn't, he signed the contract a just a couple of minutes ago"

"**Hehehe, good joke, and he summoned me in what, his second try? Next time make up something more believable"**

"Just to make it clear big guy, it was my first try"—said Naruto as he got in front of the toad's eyes.

"**Alright Jiraya, this has gone far enough, explain what's really going on here"**

"Hey! I'm the one that summoned you stupid toad! If you don't believe it then I will summon the boss of my other contract and prove it just for you to see that I can and did summon you!"

"**What! Jiraya, you let someone aligned to some other clan sign the contract with us?"**

"He has another contract? I didn't know, I promise"—they didn't discuss further as Naruto leaped from the toad and made the seals for the jutsu as he fell, when he touched the ground he slammed both hands on the ground, this detail didn't go unnoticed by the toad boss.

_**A double hand contract? Those **__**normally don't let anyone sign their contracts, maybe this kid is worth after all.—**_The smoke screen dissipated then and revealed a regal looking white tiger several feet bigger than Gamabunta himself.

"**Naruto, what have you summoned me for? Are you in a battle with the toad's clan mayhap?"**

"Nothing like that Byakko-sama, I was just trying to prove that I can and did summon him by summoning another boss from another clan"

"**I understand, so, Toad, do you believe my summoner now?"**

"**You…how could this boy…I mea****n, the tigers…IT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE!"—**finally shouted the toad out of frustration and confusion, but then put a hand over his mouth—**"I'm sorry for my daring Byakko-sama, I wasn't aware the boy could summon you, but pray tell me your highness, I was in ****the understanding that your clan didn't have a contract since you…got into isolation"—**said the toad with his head low.

"**There is no need for you to apologize, it's not that known yet. Yes, my clan didn't have a contract, but the kid found me while I was in a tight spot and helped me out with amazing skill, he was able to convince me then to let him sign the contract"**

"**I see, Naruto, was it? Then, on behalf of my clan let me say that we would be honored to have you as our summoner, and by extension be aligned to the white tigers' house, someone that has been able to impress the white tigers would be a worthy summoner"**

"Wait wait wait, what in the name of all that is Icha is going on?"—asked Jiraya who was befuddled at everything that was happening.

"**Shut your trap Jiraya, had you told me before that the boy had a contract with the white tigers clan then we could have spared all the trouble for Byakko-sama!"**

"But I seriously didn't know, he didn't tell me about it, and how was I to guess that a kid would already have a contract with another clan? That aside why did your demeanor changed so drastically?"

"**Hehehe, Naruto, you seriously are giving Gamabunta-dono and the man over there a headache worth two nights of sake"**

"It's Ero-sensei's fault for not confirming if I had another contract, he should have guessed it when I didn't need instructions for the signing, and it's also Gamabunta's fault for not believing me when I said I summoned him. But that aside how are things going Byakko? Have there been any changes regarding Suzaku's or Seiryu's status?"

"**Right, I forgot about that, there have been no changes regarding Seiryu-dono, however Suzaku-dono has been reborn already, though he is still a bit weak. I have been able convince him to align their contract to ours, so now you will be able to summon the phoenix clan as well, the only change is that now you will have to specify which clan you are asking for aid when you summon with both hands, I plan to do the same with the dragon clan, that way you can keep tabs on the three of us, you should summon Suzaku-dono sometime soon to meet him and explain the situation, I have explained to the best of my capabilities but you are the one that has a better understanding of all the details, I will be linking him to the seal once again in about a month, Jashin should be taken care of by then, how are things going on your side?"**

"**Wait"—**boomed Gamabunta's voice—**"are you telling me that this boy not only is in agreement with the white tigers clan but the phoenix clan as we****ll? And he will be aligned with the dragon clan in the future?"**

"**That's what I plan, Gamabunta-dono"**

"**Is he…aware?"**

"**He found me for that very same reason; he wanted to make sure the seal wasn't failing"**

"So, boss, you know about it too huh? I guess it shouldn't surprise me, most…summons, would know about it"

"What are you talking about?"—asked Jiraya who was now standing on top of Gamabunta.

"**It's a secret!"—**said the three of them and Jiraya shut up.

"**Well Naruto, seeing as everything is done here I will be taking my leave, Gamabunta-dono, it would be a pleasure to have you over at my humble house and discuss our new alliance over a bottle of sake"**

"**I will be honored to comply, Byakko-sama"—**After that Byakko disappeared in a cloud of smoke, Naruto fell to the ground and landed smoothly—**"well kid, I must say I'm quite surprised, no one has been able to summon white tigers in over a millennium, if not longer, and am pleased to say that the toads clan will be getting some positive attention soon given our new a****lliance to not only one, but two of the four royal houses, soon to be three, thanks to you. Feel free to summon me at any given time"—**and with that the toad boss was gone as well, Jiraya landed in front of him with a stern expression on his face.

"Ok, kid, what was all that about?"

"Politics, what else?"

"Why didn't you tell me you had another contract?"

"You didn't ask, shouldn't that be something you would need to check before you tell anyone to sign a contract? In case both clans are at odds with each other"

"Alright and what about that seal the tiger mentioned?"

"You shouldn't speak about him that way, you heard how the toad boss, Gamabunta was it? Referred to him as 'sama' that should be proof enough that you not only should, but must respect him"

"You didn't answer my question though"—pressed the Sannin.

"Actually all three of us did a while ago, at the same time even, it's a secret, and for a good reason, so don't even go and try to figure it out, you might put everything at risk, and I mean everything"

"If it's such a big secret it shouldn't be entrusted to a kid"—Naruto narrowed his eyes, he knew that Ero-sennin meant well, but he was too much of a busybody and was being too pushy.

"I mean it, don't meddle with this, you don't know anything about it, the less you know the better for everyone, if you start looking around other people will and eventually everything will go amiss, this is too big for you"

"Then I will have to tell the Hokage about what I heard today"

"And he will tell you the exact same thing I told you, he already knows what's going on, I will repeat it one last time, don't meddle with this, it's too big for you"

"Alright then, I guess if you are able to handle something this big then you don't need my training"—said the Sannin and started walking away

"If you say so, I already got what I wanted from you"—Jiraya turned around suddenly and rage was clear on his face

"You little shit! You just wanted the contract with the toads, why?"

"I have my reasons, you can go to the Hokage if you want, but he knows what I'm doing here and won't stop me. I won't force you to train me, but you shouldn't treat your godson like this just because you won't get to hear some secret, as I told you, it's a secret for a reason"

"What do you mean godson?"—asked Jiraya, suddenly very nervous.

"Try and hide it all you want, I don't care, I'm willing to let you in on my life, you abandoned me for 13 years, why? I don't know and don't really care, but I'm willing to forgive you for that and give you another chance, if you will throw that away because a hissy fit then so be it"

"You are a cheeky brat"

"And you are a busybody kid, you just have an older body"

"Whatever"—said the Sannin and then shunshined away.

"Sigh"_ That didn't go too well, did it?—_asked Naruto to himself

_**Be that as it may we can't let him find out about Yami, if he does so could Danzo, Orochimaru and Madara, and we know too well how those three would use that information, the fewer the people that knows the better, so far only you and the Old Monkey, if we can keep it that way it will be for the best.**_

_I just hope Ero-sennin changes his mind, I really would regret not having him in my life just because I can't let him know, he was like a father to me._

_**I'm sorry then, but we knew what effects our little journey could have and accepted those consequence.**_

_Well, now I have to find something to train at, I just don't know what, being 67 years old of experience seriously reduces my options._

.-._.-._.

**Sometimes this story writes itself, seriously I didn't see that coming, I was planning on having him do a little training at the beginning and then start the finals but well, you can see how that turned out. Don't be too quick to flame because of this turn of events.**

**R&R please.**


	20. Chapter 20

**Get it into your heads people, I won't abandon my stories. And understand this as well, I won't change the pairing. I decided it would be NaruSaku so it will stay NaruSaku.**

.-._.-._.

Ch. 19: Time flies.

Naruto stood in the middle of the arena that was to be used for the final test of the chuunin exams; it was bigger than he remembered; maybe the old man believed that the extra space was going to be needed at some point, probably in the eventuality that he had to fight Gaara. He turned off the sound of the multitude, he looked at his side, there stood Sakura, she looked at him and smiled confidently, he knew she wanted to fight him, if anything to prove that they were equals. He answered her defiant smile with a smirk of his own and turned his eyes to the front once more.

While they waited for all the guests to arrive and take their places he thought back to the month they had to prepare, which took him to his fight with Jiraya, he grimaced briefly at the memory, he had yet to make it up to him for tricking him as he did, though the few times he saw him he noticed he was enjoying his gift greatly. Since then he had gotten the toads to 'train' him in Senjutsu, Pa was amazed that he had mastered the sage mode in but a week, of course that he already knowing how to do it had nothing to do with it. Kyuubi didn't see the need for him to go through a fake training like that, but Naruto needed the explanation in case he was forced to use it. When he got back from Myobokusan after the week was over he got news that Orochimaru had been aided to escape and was on the run once again, which meant that the invasion was still going to happen, Naruto had hoped it wouldn't after he captured the slippery Sannin, it seemed that some things couldn't be changed, or maybe he just didn't try hard enough to change it, he scowled at that thought but dismissed it quickly, he didn't need to worry about that for now, it wouldn't do him any good.

The rest of the month was occupied with him training his bending skills, he was good enough with the normal Water, Fire, Earth and Air bending, but Kyuubi had told him of advanced forms that were used when he was still part of Juubi, long before the Rikudou was even born, for example Earth benders could, with enough practice, experience and familiarity with the earth bend metal, very few were known to achieve such a feat, most of them were avatars themselves. For water benders there were some who were frowned upon, since they could bend the water in the blood and take the water out of plants around them, he understood how such powers would be seen as wrong or evil back then, but in this era it would be a huge advantage to have, he was a ninja after all. Fire benders had the lightning, but no one had ever before gone beyond casting lightning bolts, they couldn't really bend it, just call it fort, Naruto wanted to conquer it, but it would take time, seeing as no one had ever done it and all. Then the air benders had the sound bending, which was not really bending sound but using wind to distort, amplify or nullify it. Unfortunately, no matter how much he trained during those last three weeks he wasn't able to pull any of it, sure he was already able to cast lightning bolts, but that was just the stepping stone to bend lightning, which was still a faraway goal.

Then came the final week, he had been called to the Hokage's office since someone was looking for him, when he arrived he saw it was none other than Jashin, he had already forgotten that a month had passed already since then, but he looked tired, it seemed like he was having a hard time resisting Yami's influence on him, so much that he didn't even wait for the Hokage to ask anything from Naruto, he just prompted the blond to get it done. So he sealed the demi-god in a ring he had prepared for the occasion, which he was wearing right now, the ring was made out of a silver and chakra conducting metal amalgam, it had the design of a skull wearing a soldier winged helmet(**AN: The des****ign is the same of a ring I have myself**). At first he thought it only would need to be fed with chakra and consume happiness from people when he was fighting them, but he discovered the worst way that if he pushed more chakra into it he could cast a genjutsu picturing the target's worst nightmare.

He had accidentally pushed chakra into it when performing a Rasengan during one of his spar with several clones. Unfortunately his students were watching the spar and Konohamaru got trapped into the genjutsu, which he discovered couldn't be disrupted either by the target or by outside forces. Konohamaru went through his worst nightmare until the technique wore out two minutes later, by then he was sweating cold, when he told them what he had seen Naruto had laughed, it was a relief that Konohamaru had yet to see the true cruelty of the world or else he would have a really traumatizing nightmare, "spiders are scary" he had said back then. He knew that if it had been Inari, who had seen Kaisa's execution, or Ranmaru, who had lived with a nuke-nin, he would have had a handful with them.

Since then he also practiced the genjutsu with his clones and how to finish it or control it, he had yet to understand a lot about it, but he could at least prevent casting it by accident, he didn't need kids crying on the streets just by a mistake from his part.

He was taken out of his musing by the voice of Hayate, he smiled, it seemed that Kabuto having to help Orochimaru escape had side effects, the sick-looking jounin addressed them and ordered silence, the Hokage then stood up and called for everyone's attention, Naruto already knew what he was going to say but looked anyway, and then he saw something different from last time, there along with the disguised Orochimaru and the Hokage was none other than Zabuza Momochi sitting to the old man's right side with Haku and Mei Terumi as his guards. It came as a very big surprise because he thought that Kiri would need some time to get back on their feet, but Zabuza's presence said otherwise, and even then he didn't know why the Misukage would be there, after all no Kiri shinobi had participated in the exams to begin with. The Hokage finished his speech and he was once more taken out of his musing by the chronic coughing shinobi.

"Alright, everyone but…cough…but the two current fighters please go to…chough cough…the waiting loft, Naruto Uzumaki and Rock Lee please stay here"(**AN: HA! Thought I wouldn't make them fight?**)—Naruto smirked, this was one fight he didn't mind, he seriously enjoyed his spars with the eccentric bushy brows, and no matter which timeline he was in he knew that wouldn't ever change.

"Yosh! Finally I get to fight my eternal rival, prepare to face my flames of youth Naruto-kun! I will prove myself to the beautiful Sakura-chan!"—shouted the green clad teen. On the waiting loft Sakura felt a chill run down her spine.

"That won't happen Lee-san, sorry but I will crush you just for implying that you can take Sakura-chan away from me"—both of them took their own taijutsu stances.

"Ready? Then…cough…begin!"—said the proctor and then jumped away from the arena leaving the two fighters to themselves.

As soon as the Tokubetsu Jounin was out of the way both of them rushed at each other, their fists collided with the other's and a slight shockwave lifted some dust around them, Lee looked at Naruto with a confident smile, which the blond returned with a smirk of his own. The green clad gennin suddenly spun and launched a whip kick to Naruto's ankle; the blond stood his ground, his Hun Gar stance giving him a strong foundation. Lee's leg collided with his and another shockwave ensued without any of them buckling, though Lee was surprised that his move hadn't worked, Naruto on the other hand took advantage of his surprise and sent a kick to his opponent's midsection, which he caught with his bare hand, resulting in a third shockwave, just in time before sending a kick of his own towards the blonde's head. Naruto blocked with his left forearm, at this point the shockwave was almost expected, though it wasn't any less amazing to behold such strength behind the impacts.

Naruto and Lee got some space between them and sized each other up, Lee with a smile plastered on his bug eyed face, Naruto with a serious expression, though for Sakura who knew him well it was obvious he was enjoying the fight.

"I see that what they say about my eternal rival, about being a Taijutsu genius, is accurate, your flames of youth shine brightly"—said Lee.

"Sorry to disappoint you Lee, what they say about me is incorrect, I'm no Taijutsu genius, I just train hard to get better, they are not wrong about me being a genius though"

_**I see you ooze modesty**_—said Kyuubi inside his head, Naruto decide to ignore him for the moment.

"I'm a genius at deception, for though everyone knows that I'm good at Taijutsu no one but Sakura-chan and my team know that my best skill is actually another, but I have hidden it long enough and you will taste it firsthand"—he then changed stance, and before Lee could ask what he was talking about he sent two streams of fire from his fists towards the black haired teen, who disappeared from view to dodge, and approached Naruto quickly to deliver a round kick, but the blond spun quickly and covered himself with wind, throwing Lee away from him, he stopped spinning and thrust both his palms forward sending an air stream towards his opponent, the airborne Lee had no way to dodge and ended up being sent towards one of the arena's walls, but as soon as he got the opportunity he was on the move once more. Naruto knew that Lee never stood quiet for long so he did expect him to move that soon, he stomped on the ground and a rock wall rose in front of him, which with another thrust of his palm was shot forward.

.-._.-._.

"That kid doesn't cease to amaze me, when we first met he used the elements with the same ease he does now, but I had no idea he could use wind as well, I only got to see him use water, fire and earth, only lightning is left"—said Zabuza back at the Kage's box—"and his Taijutsu is just as amazing, by the shockwaves I can say he has a strong fist, to be able to do so much at such a young age makes me freak out just imagining what he will be able to do when he grows even stronger"

"Naruto has that effect on people, by the way, he does use lighting as well, he actually defeated one of our Sannin, by what he told me afterwards he used lightning to achieve that"—said the Hokage with a smug grin on his face while looking at the fight.

"Hmm, I originally came here expecting to watch my son fight your Uchiha"—said the Kazekage—"but at this point it could be just as interesting to watch him fight this Naruto"

"Well, the council certainly wants Naruto to fight Sasuke, they seem to be convinced that it will be quite a spectacle, your son, he is that kid Gaara, am I correct?"—asked Hiruzen.

"Yes he is, but forgives me for asking, why is the council so interested in watching young Uzumaki-san fight the Uchiha scion?"

"Naruto is considered a genius among his generation, by his skills in Taijutsu alone, no one, until now, knew about his elemental skills, now that they know they will be just more eager to watch that fight happen, the council expects great things from both of them"

"Is that so? I understand blondie, but why do they expect so much about the Uchiha? Sorry for saying this but based on my experience from when I met that team I can say that kid is not as great as you, or rather your council, seems to believe, if the council expect much from him then they are clearly overestimating him and giving him boots way too big for him, he is not even here for kamies sake"

"Well, Misukage-dono, I can understand your opinion, but you met them only once and you had not that much interaction with them, we should focus on the fights and watch, maybe he will give you a surprise"

"Maybe, I doubt it though"—said the ex-nuke-nin.

"This exam just got more interesting"—said the Kazekage with a smug look on his eyes, watching hungrily at Naruto, this didn't go unnoticed to either of the other Kages, but both decided to not comment on it. They were brought back to attention when a huge burst sounded at the arena; it appeared that Rock Lee had just taken off a really heavy set of weights.

.-._.-._.

Naruto smirked fiercely as his opponent took things up a notch by taking away his weights, he was waiting for this to happen, now start the good part. As soon as Lee disappeared he readied himself for one hell of a battle, he had trained his speed since the Hokage had given him his own training ground, but unfortunately he had been focused in other things so he wasn't as fast as he could have been, so he held no illusion that he could match Lee at speed, so he had to be smarter.

One thing about being too fast was that you underwent tunnel vision unless you had a doujutsu bloodline, which neither of them had; Naruto knew that and had no qualms at using it. He created a set of kagebunshins and sent them into hiding at the same time he raised a thick stone wall in front of him, the wall wasn't strong enough to block Lee's fist, that was for sure, but what Naruto wanted was for Lee to focus his attention on the wall instead of the clones. Besides, once Lee hit it he would lose his momentum.

Soon Lee's fist collided with the stone turning it debris and the green clad shinobi halted his movement for but a fraction of a millisecond, it was enough for one of the clones to strike him from the side, sending him to crash into a wall. The dust cloud that ensued dissipated not long after as the blur that was Lee took off again, not a second later Naruto got memories of his clones being eliminated just before he had to hastily turn around and block a kick from his opponent but was not fast enough to block the second kick headed his way, which sent him flying very much like Lee did just a second ago.

_Damn! Should __have trained more on my speed—_thought the blond as he raised himself from the rubble.

_**Yeah, you should. I mean, it's not like it took much time to just increase the restrain of your wind resistance seal.**_

_Kind of slipped my mind, now shut up, I need to concentrate._

"This spar is turning out to be most youthful, my eternal rival"—said Lee as he saw Naruto getting out of the wall.

"Hm, did you say something?"—asked the blond monotonously, not being able to resist the temptation.

"Gah! You are getting the same hip and cool attitude as your hip and cool sensei; I shall defeat you and prove that my flames of youth burn brightly!"—shouted thick eyebrows.

"We shall see"—Naruto then took out a scroll form his pouch and in a swift move unrolled it and smeared it with some blood, the scroll then liberated a huge amount of water soaking the ground beneath them, Lee was confused but readied himself—"I must admit Lee, that speed of yours is astounding but it will be your undoing in this fight"—he then bended a water whip and attacked Lee who dodged easily, not surprise there, and rushed towards Naruto who smirked and with another swift move of his hands froze all the water on the ground, Lee who was running at high speed lost control of his movements due to the slippery surface, Naruto took advantage of it and as Lee tried to regain some balance the blond struck him directly on the midsection, Lee's eyes bulged as he felt the strength behind the fist and was sent back to the other side of the arena, Naruto however didn't stop his assault and turned the ice back to water which he sent towards Lee soaking him and immediately freezing, effectively hindering his movements, not that it would last, what with Lee having superb strength as well, but it would give him enough time to finish the fight. Naruto was about to charge at Lee when he felt a surge of chakra ahead of him and widened his eyes.

_HE WOULDN'T!—_thought the blond suddenly nervous.

_**Oh yes, he did—**_answered his inner bijuu.

"_Kaimon, Kyuumon KAI!_"

_Well, shit—_thought Naruto readying himself to take this battle up a notch.

.-._.-._.

**Well, that's it for now, hope you enjoyed it, I tried to make it longer than usual, don't know if I succeeded but meh, whatever. Anyway, R&R and have some patience, I'm having trouble to find any free time to write at all.**

**SYA!**


	21. Chapter 21

Ch. 20: Tournament Part. 1

"_Kaimon, Kyuumon KAI!_"

_Well, shit—_thought Naruto readying himself to take this battle up a notch.

The blond had barely any time to block the incoming fist of Lee, but that did nothing to prevent the damage as he was thrown into a wall and his arm, which he used to block, was fractured in several parts. He wheezed from the pain and made his best to ignore it, Kyuubi was already working on fixing it.

_Damn it, this is going to be a really hard fight._

_**You should have finished it quick. You knew he was capable of this and more, and you also knew that once he opened the gates it would be really hard for you to win.**_

_Yeah, well, I didn't want to humiliate bushy brows too bad._

_**Now you are the one who is going to be humiliated.**_

_Shut up, I better get out there or Hayate will call the match.—_Naruto stood up from all the rubble and entered once again the arena, only to grimace at the first thing he heard.

"_Seimon,KAI!_"—another burst of chakra was felt from Lee

"Fuck it"—thought the blond as he took off to dodge Lee, he didn't think his body could take another of his fists.

He ran along the edge of the arena, only to see Lee running in the opposite direction, and they would have collided, or rather Lee would have run all over Naruto, if not for the blond quick thinking and diving into the ground, just to appear immediately behind Lee and keep running.

.-._.-._.

Up in the Kages' booth the three village leaders were wondering what the blond was trying to do by running in circles and avoiding Lee every time they almost met.

"It seems that the Uzumaki child is not as good as we initially thought, he is running like a chicken with its head cut off"—said the amused Kazekage.

"He might be running, at least it looks that way, but Naruto is not one who does things pointlessly, he must have a plan"—commented the Hokage.

"Or making time to develop one"—added Zabuza.

Their conversation was cut short when they noticed the wind had started to change course and gaining strength.

"Impossible!"—exclaimed the sand leader when he saw that a tornado was starting to form in the middle of the arena.

"Told you he had a plan"—said smugly the old Sarutobi.

"A technique that big should require a big load of chakra, yet I have not felt any being used when the gaki uses any jutsu, either he is really good when it comes to controlling his chakra, or he is doing something totally different from jutsus"—commented the new Mizukage. Hiruzen remained silent.

.-. _.-._.

Down in the arena, Naruto had not stopped running, and Lee had been forced to open the other two gates he was able to access in order to not lose any speed. But even then he was finding it hard to move when the wind was against him, Naruto on the other hand had gained a boost from it and now they were almost on even term, Lee still slightly above him.

_**Why don't you use my power? It could turn this entire situation around—**_commented the Kyuubi inside Naruto's head.

_Because people don't know you are insi__de me, if I use even a small amount of your power, those who are really sensitive to chakra and were alive when you attacked wouldn't take long to put two and two together, after that it would only be a matter of time for Akatsuki to be onto us, for now, a__s long as I don't use your power in public we are safe. Now shut up and let me focus._—answered the blond while he started concentrating chakra in his hand, forming a small sphere. Causing a lot of people in the stands to widen their eyes.

Lee saw the incoming attack and, with his hardheaded nature, was determined to meet it head on. The wind blowing against him with great strength and giving his opponent a boost at the same time made it difficult for Lee to approach Naruto to attack properly, but the attack Naruto was using was clearly close range so if could get his chance if he withstood it. With that in mind he didn't dodge when the blond ran towards him, using the tornado's wind to gain speed, and called his attack.

"_RASENGAN!_"—the spiraling sphere hit its mark, Lee's abdomen. Lee, despite all his current power due to the opening of the gates, was hard pressed to ignore the pain, but he did it nevertheless and was able to land a heavy powered punch on Naruto's face.

Both teens flew backwards and collided with the walls of the arena, after that the tornado dissipated and everything was deadly silent. Hayate waited a few seconds to see if any of them would stand up, but seeing that neither would he started to call the match and declare it a tie, but was interrupted by a voice coming from the middle of the arena. Everyone was surprised when the blond Uzumaki rose from the ground, his body battered and his arm limp by his side. Hayate looked at where the blond had landed, expecting him to disappear or change into a log, but neither happened so he turned to look at the blond standing in front of him.

"A clone wouldn't have a chance of reaching Lee, so the original did it instead, leaving a clone behind to finish the job, in other words, I'm the clone"—Hayate was now confused as to what he should do, both contestants were unconscious, but in a real battle situation Naruto would have won if only because he had a contingency plan, however the rules of the tournament said he should declare it a tie. He looked at the Kages' booth for guidance.

.-._.-._.

"Hmm, I see how that could work in a real fight"—said the Mizukage—"the original is unconscious and since he didn't dispel like a clone would then his enemy would think he had won, just before he was struck down by the clone. It's a good strategy for a one on one fight, but out in the field when there are teams, he would be hard pressed to pull this kind of shit off"

"Agreed, however as you said in a one on one fight it would work, and this was one on one so I believe we should grant the Uzumaki the match"—said the Kazekage

"If you two have no problem with it then it's alright"—said Hiruzen, he would have Hayate give the match to Naruto if not for the fact that it could enrage the other village leaders, but since it was them who suggested it then he was free to grant the victory to Naruto, he signaled to Hayate to do so.

.-._.-._.

After the Jounin declared Naruto the victor all the stands exploded in cheers and the clone took the original to the participants' booth while the medics took Lee away. As soon as they were there the clone was released from his burden by Sakura who took him away from the others to take care of her boyfriend. Up in the stands, a young couple looked at each other before nodding and leaving the stadium, with all the cheering no one noticed them disappearing.

Sakura had not much time to take care of Naruto. The following match, Neji vs. Kankuro, had been called quickly since the Suna shinobi gave up before it even began; Neji said something about being smart for accepting fate. So now she had to fight Shino before planned, she played with the idea of giving up as well, but she really wanted to fight Naruto in an environment where he wouldn't hold back, something he usually did during their trainings, which pissed her off. She sighed and decided to go down and fight.

.-._.-._.

"Sigh, this match is going to end quite fast"—commented the Kazekage—"A clan heir against a civilian child, this is going to be one-sided"

"You wouldn't know this Kazekage-dono, but Haruno Sakura is a really good kunoichi, she helped Naruto-kun in the capture of Orochimaru"—this perked the Kazekage's attention.

"Really? How so?"—his voice sounded almost angry, but he was concealing it quite well.

"You wouldn't expect me to reveal the strategy of one of my shinobies now, would you?"—said the old Hokage with a chuckle.

"It never hurts to try"—commented dryly the disguised Orochimaru.

.-._.-._.

"The match between Haruno Sakura and Aburame Shino is about to commence, are both participants ready?"—neither of them said anything, just nodded—"begin!"—and then he leapt away from the arena.

Sakura lost no time and ran towards Shino, who was surprised by this behavior, he had investigated and Sakura was more of a 'watch before act' kind of fighter. That she was attacking first and so early was clearly a strategy to throw him off, but he wouldn't fall for it. He quickly set his bugs to attack her, Sakura however dodged their approach and kept heading to their master and stabbed him on the chest before jumping away as he transformed into a lot of bugs.

Shino reappeared a few feet away from her and sent another swarm of bugs her way, she was in the air so she could hardly dodge and he was planning on using that against her. Sakura made a quick set of hand seals and evoked her jutsu.

"_Suiton: Teppoudama _(_Gunshot_)"—the pinkette then spitted out a huge ball of water that stopped the incoming bugs, she landed safely but had to dodge once again as Shino hadn't lost any time to send his bugs again. Just to come face to face with the one who controlled them. Shino tried to hit her but she swiftly avoided it, if only by just a few millimeters, and quickly put some distance between them.

Shino started to attack her more violently, trying to swarm her. However Sakura dodged quite easily his attacks, his insect could be a good mean to attack long range, however Sakura had enough time to get away from them. This however didn't worry the Aburame, he was discreetly leaving a few bugs behind every time she dodged and little by little he was cornering her. Suddenly Shino stopped attacking and Sakura, wary of what he might do readied herself, she however didn't expect her opponent to state she was finished.

"It's no use to keep fighting, you are surrounded now. All this time I have attacked you just to distract you and now you are between me and my bugs, also, there is a female of my Kikai Bugs on your clothes so you can't hide from me. Give up or I will be forced to put you down"—Sakura just scowled.

"Tch, I was hoping to use this against Naruto-kun, but apparently I will need to use it now"—she muttered under her breath, just low enough for her opponent, and maybe the proctor, to hear. She then took out a scroll and jumped as Shino sent his bugs to get her before she could do whatever she was planning. The bugs followed her on the air and she had to send another Teppoudama to block them, she unrolled the scroll and activated it. A cloud of smoke signaled that whatever she had sealed in there had been released and not even a second later a huge barrage of kunai headed to the ground.

.-._.-._.

"HEY!"—was the indignant shout of a brown haired kunoichi standing in the participants' booth. Naruto internally smirked at this since he had been the one to 'inspire' Sakura for that technique, though he doubted she really was going to try that with him, she knew it wouldn't work.

.-._.-._.

Down in the arena, the kunai filled the entire area and a few pierced Shino. However it was immediately revealed that he was in fact just another bug clone as it lost its shape and was substituted by the insects. Sakura smirked as she knew that now more than half of Shino's hive was in the field rather than protected inside her opponent, it was time to activate her trap. She made one hand seal and Shino, from his hiding spot, saw that all the kunai had tags attached to them and he panicked, his bugs were in danger. The tags then exploded and released a thick cloud of green smoke; Shino knew then that he had already lost, as he covered his mouth to prevent the insecticide from killing the bugs still inside of him.

The smoke dissipated and revealed that indeed Shino's bugs had been dealt with and Sakura stood in the middle of the arena; a winning smile plastered on her face. It wasn't long before Shino revealed himself and gave up. Sakura then jumped back to the participants' booth, oblivious to the glare she was receiving from Tenten, and headed towards Naruto who had at some point woken up.

"Good job down there"—he commented, Sakura's smile became, if possible, more brilliant at his praise—"Now I just got to deal with the fate obsessed Hyuuga and you will have your fight"

"You better not lose, you hear me To-kun? I expect you to win your next fight and if you beat me then you will win the entire tournament or else!"—she left the threat unspoken. Naruto sweat dropped but his smile didn't faltered.

The next fight, just as Naruto remembered was postponed due to it being Sasuke vs. Gaara and Sasuke not being present. So the next fight, Nara Shikamaru vs. Tenten, was next, if Sasuke didn't arrive after it that fight was finished then he would be disqualified. Naruto just sighed at Kakashi's obsession with being late, oh well, nothing he could do about it for now.

.-._.-._.

The fight was pretty much one sided, Tenten might be a good support fighter but she could hardly fight one on one, the fact was that she had won because she fought a fan girl. Her style of throwing a lot of weapons played against her in the end as Shikamaru used the shadows of said weapons to trap her.

After that Gaara got down to the stage to wait for Sasuke to appear. Hayate was ordered to wait five minutes before granting a default win to Gaara. Four minutes later a swirl of leaves formed in the middle of the arena and Sasuke, along with Kakashi made their appearance. After apologizing for being late, the jounin left to the participants' booth to greet his other two students.

.-._.-._.

"Yo!"—said the jounin once he got to where his students were.

"Hi Kakashi-sensei"—greeted Sakura, Naruto only said 'hi'.

"So, how did it go? I take it both of you won your matches?"

"Of course"—said the blond with a smirk—"now let's see how Sasuke fares against Gaara"

"Sigh, I don't think he will win, unfortunately he is too arrogant to realize when he is outmatched, I did my best to guarantee his survival at least"

"Have a little faith Kakashi-sensei, it's not becoming for a sensei to not believe in his student"

"I suppose you are right Sakura, however it's hard for me to believe in him when he is so difficult to deal with"

"The match is about to begin"—announced Naruto and both of them stood to attention.

.-._.-._.

**I will leave it here for now, sorry for the delay, it's not that I had forgotten or anything like that, it's just that I had a hard time writing the fight b****etween Naruto and Lee. I hope you enjoy this, please R&R.**


	22. Chapter 22

Ch. 21: Tournament Pt. 2

"So, Kakashi-sensei, what did you teach the teme?"—asked Naruto once the fight had started. Going by what he was seeing, Sasuke had not improved greatly.

"Well, the first week I tried many methods to attempt to awaken his bloodline. It's usually awakened by life-death situations"—answered the Jounin while observing the battle, Sasuke had almost been engulfed by Gaara's sand just now, fortunately the Uchiha had enough sense to know what being caught would mean for him.—"So I tried putting him under a genjutsu where he was in mortal peril. Unfortunately Sasuke is victim of his own success; he is too good in detecting genjutsu"

"That doesn't surprise me"—commented the blond, his girlfriend turned to look at him then.

"Why is that?"—asked the pinkette.

"After what Itachi did to him when the massacre occurred it's only logical that Sasuke would seek to prevent falling for that again, so he focused on detecting and dispelling genjutsu, probably anyway. Don't put too much weight to my words"—answered Naruto, Kakashi nodded in agreement.

"That would be correct, he detected the genjutsu and reflexively dispelled it before it could work, so the next method…that was close, he is getting frustrated now"—commented Kakashi as Sasuke dodged another attack.

"He has always been the type to focus on attacking, he doesn't like when he is unable to, he could do something stupid next"—commented Naruto.

"Maybe we should interfere, before he gets himself killed"—said Sakura, but the males shook their heads.

"Sasuke is too prideful, if we interfere to save him he might do something even stupider, something that could have worse repercussions, we shall interrupt the fight only if he is about to get himself killed"—answered the Jounin—"anyway, since the genjutsu didn't work I tried for something more…real if you will, so I attacked him. I guess that in some subconscious level he knows I would never harm him as he is my student, because it didn't work either. I thought I had succeeded when I added some killer intent to overcome his subconscious because he seemed to activate the Sharingan and was able to dodge. I was mistaken because he wasn't able to activate it again, even when I repeated the same process"

"So what you are saying is that he still can't activate them willingly but if things become too much for him they could activate?"

"He just might, let's just hope it doesn't come to that"

"Seeing how thing are going down there your hope will go unanswered"—commented Naruto—"he is becoming bolder by the second, he will throw all caution to the wind soon"—Sasuke had just tried to attack Gaara and barely got away on time to prevent being crushed.

"So what did you exactly teach him if he couldn't awaken the Sharingan at all?"—asked Sakura, her eyes fixated on the fight.

"I honed his reflexes more than anything; I figured that if I couldn't awaken the Sharingan so he could look for an opening, I would at the very least make it so that he could dodge long enough to find one"

"What I'm wondering is how you managed that? We all know how he is, and patience is not something Sasuke has. Still, it seems you managed, at least to some extent, to convince him, how?"—asked the blond.

"I conditioned his mind to react that way. I trained his speed and his reflexes and made him stay on alert all the time; however it seems that it worked only so far"

"So, in only one month you managed to mold his brain into dodging and running?"

"More or less; it's only a temporary measure. After the exams are over we will go back to try and awaken his eyes; this was the best I could do in a month. I would have taught him the Chidori as well, but the Sharingan or another doujutsu is necessary for its use, although your abilities with the elements might help you overcome that flaw"—commented Kakashi.

"That fool will get himself killed, he is also getting tired but he just won't forfeit"—muttered the Uzumaki.

.-._.-._.

Down in the arena, Sasuke was effectively starting to get tired and frustrated. From the very beginning of the fight he had been on the defensive and only was able to attempt an attack a couple of times, those ended up in failure though.

He gritted his teeth angrily, his opponent on the other hand had not lift even a finger, and stared at him impassively, mocking him.

"Is that all you have Uchiha? I was under the impression you would be able to prove my existence, yet your blood would only upset mother. You are a waste of my time."—stated Gaara matter-of-factly.

"Shut up! I'm an Uchiha, I won't lose to some scum like you, not now, nor ever"—and with that the Uchiha ran towards his enemy, blinded by rage at being told he was worthless. What his team feared had come to pass and he had thrown all caution to the wind.

As he ran, Sasuke performed a set of hand seals, Gaara stood his ground, absolutely unfazed by the fact that the Uchiha was approaching. He mentally commanded his sand to lash at Sasuke, but Kakashi's reflex training proved effective as his student dodged the attack and kept running towards the redhead. Gaara didn't react at this and just erected a sand shield. Sasuke finished his string of hand seals and spat a great fireball from his mouth but didn't let go of it.

The attack collided with the sand shield and, as Sasuke kept it going, said sand started to become glass. Gaara's face showed his momentary surprise at losing control over his sand as this became something else. He had faced fire users before, but most fire attacks were short lived, and those which weren't needed a lot of chakra, the average shinobi didn't have that much energy; he had never faced someone who could keep a fire attack long enough to start turning his sand into glass. This, however, meant that his opponent was overexerting himself in a futile attempt to reach him, this proved truth a few seconds later as the attack receded and he lowered his sand shield to find a kneeled Uchiha panting.

.-._.-._.

"Well, at least he didn't kill himself, he is out of chakra, even h must realize that the fight is over"—said Naruto as he watched his teammate exhausted in the arena.

"I think you spoke too soon"—commented Kakashi.

"He is an idiot, it's official now"—muttered the blond.

.-._.-._.

He was tired, dead tired, he had wasted all his chakra in that last attack, and it hadn't worked! But he couldn't lose, not against this nobody. Ignoring his instincts and his body protests he forcefully stood up and took out a kunai, ready to keep fighting. Many people in the stands were shaking their head, even the civilians could see that the last loyal Uchiha was too tired to keep going, some of his more avid fans were even shouting for him to give up, fearing that he would be killed if he didn't. But Sasuke ignored them, and with what little energy he could muster he started to run towards Gaara, the Suna genin just stood there.

"Your existence is meaningless, I shall put an end to it"—said tonelessly the redhead and his sand shoot forward.

Sasuke saw the sand approaching fast, but he didn't have the energy to change course now, the only reason his body hadn't stopped yet was because he had already built momentum. He knew he was done for, he knew his ambition would never come to be, his clan wouldn't be avenged.

He saw the world slow down for the briefest of moments, his sharingan unknown to him had activated, but with his chakra levels so low already it only lasted a mere second before he was totally depleted and fell down.

Gaara saw his opponent's prone form on the ground, but didn't stop his sand, which would have enveloped the Uchiha before crushing him, had it not been stopped by a rock dome suddenly covering his target.

"You won already, there is no need to kill my teammate"—said Naruto as he landed on top of the dome that protected Sasuke.

"His existence is meaningless"

"Even if that's so, I won't allow you to kill him. Proctor, I would call the match already"—said Naruto to the chunnin, who had been distracted by the sudden interruption.

"Right, winner by knock out, Sabaku no Gaara!"—yelled the proctor and the onlookers gave a polite applause, most of the stands were occupied by Konoha citizens, and they were not happy about their shinobi loosing, after all.

Gaara just stared impassively at the blond for a few seconds before turning and going to the waiting loft. Naruto on the other hand sunk to the ground along with the dome, leaving only the proctor in the arena and the medics wondering where the Uchiha had been taken, a second later the ground beneath them opened and from it the prone form of Sasuke emerged, Naruto on the other hand appeared directly in the waiting loft.

"cough…we will take a brief break before…cough… going on with the second…cough… round of the torunament"—announced Hayate—"use this time as you please, we …cough…will go uninterrupted once the fights restart"

.-._.-._.

"Well, at least he is alive"—said Kakashi to Naruto once he returned from the arena.

"His pride not so much"—answered the blond.

"He will get over it eventually"

"It will take a very long time before that, knowing him"—commented Sakura—"I will go quickly to the loo"

"Alright Sa-chan, see you in a few"—and with that the pinkette left—"that guy, Gaara, I will be fighting him in the finals"

"Probably"—said Kakashi while reading his book, now that his student was safe he could relax for a while—"However Neji won't be a walk in the park either, I hear he is some kind of genius"

"So they say, but he thinks everything is written on stone, so he is overconfident that fate is on his side, he will underestimate me, that's going to be his downfall"

"You think?"

"I believe so, yes. Sigh, I will go talk with the Hokage"

"Whatever for?"—asked his jounin sensei without taking his eye from the book.

"Just to say hi to Zabuza and Haku, and see how I stand for the promotion so far"

"Alright then"—and as he changed the page he was reading Naruto disappeared.

.-._.-._.

At the Kage's booth, just as Naruto interrupted the match.

"That was disappointing"—commented the Kazekage—"I thought the Uchiha were supposed to produce great shinobi, but from what I saw, that boy doesn't show that much promise. I was eager to watch this fight, I feel almost…cheated"

"That's what happens when your expectations are high, reality takes them down hard"—answered Zabuza—"I told you that your council was overestimating him, did I not? That brat needs discipline more than anything. Currently he is hotheaded and arrogant, an arrogance, that I must add, has no backing."

The Hokage sighed at this remark—"Unfortunately, with him being the last of his clan, the council is determined to suck up to him as long as he remains in the village. They fear the loss of his bloodline. This of course has cause the boy to grow as he is now, arrogant in his belief that he is invincible because of whom his predecessors were. I have tried to talk the council out of this behavior, but they are too stubborn to listen; maybe with this they will finally see reason"

"Well, I'm more interested in that Uzumaki boy now, he showed great prowess in both ninjutsu and taijutsu, he also has a gift to think on his toes, his fight with Gaara shall indeed be interesting" –commented the disguised Orochimaru.

As if summoned, the aforementioned blond appeared in front of the three village leaders. Many of those who noticed this were appalled at the nerve of the young shinobi who dared to appear unannounced in front of these powerful men. The three kages' bodyguards positioned themselves defensively in front of their leaders, but soon had to lower their weapons at the order of said leaders.

"Naruto, to what do I owe this visit?"—asked the Hokage, looking intently at his genin. He might think of him as a surrogated grandson, but his sudden appearance could be taken as disrespect towards the other kages, something he could not allow. Fortunately the new Mizukage was on good terms with the blond and broke the tension.

"Hi there gaki, long time not see"—commented Zabuza

"Has it been that long? I don't think that much time has passed. Hi Haku good to see you well"—greeted Naruto.

"Same here, Naruto-san, good fight down there by the way"

"I have to agree with the girl on that"—inserted the 'Kazekage' ignoring Haku's glare at being called a girl.

_Why do people still say I'm a girl, fuck damn it I will grow a beard!_

Orochimaru in disguise continued—"your fight was most impressive, I hope to see you fight in the finals against my son, Gaara. It should prove to be…memorable"

"I bet you do"—muttered Naruto, too silent to be heard—"Thanks, I guess. No offence but, I will kick your brat's ass"

"Naruto, please show some respect to the Kazekage"—however the Hokage's reprimand lost strength as the Kazekage chuckled at Naruto's remark.

"I would like to see you try"

"Anyway, no-brows, how come you're here? There are no Kiri genin here today"—asked Naruto to, a now angry, Zabuza.

"Grrr…actually I came to watch your fights, and of course to strike a deal with the Hokage for an alliance between our villages"—answered no-br…I mean Zabuza.—"I also brought something for you as thanks gift for your help before, but that will have to wait since the tournament is about to start again and I believe it's your turn to fight the Hyuga boy"—Naruto turned around and saw Hayate approaching the center of the arena and announce the following fight between Naruto himself and Neji.

"I guess I should go. Wish me luck"

"Break a leg"

"…"

"What? It means good luck in theater"—said Zabuza nonchalantly, Naruto just sent a glare at him and shunshin'ed away.

.-._.-._.

"Are both contestants ready? cough"—asked the sickly looking jounin at the teens in front of him, Naruto just nodded.

"You should just as well give up now Uzumaki, fate has determined my victory already"—commented Neji as he readied his Taijutsu stance.

"The Hyuga are not known for being seers and words don't win battles, so shut up or face defeat"

"Alright then…cough be…cough…begin!"

"Byakugan!"—shouted the Hyuga and Naruto launched himself at his opponent.

.-._.-._.

**Sorry for leaving it here, and sorry for taking this long to update. There is a funny story behind why I didn't update till now, but I won't bother you with such meaningless things. The fact is I didn't update and have no excuse because, even though there were some reasons for my delay, I had the time to write, just not the heart to do so. I hope you like this chapter and sorry for not writing a proper fight scene, I have trouble with those and few are the ones I get right.**

**Please R&R.**


	23. Chapter 23

Ch. 22: Approaching the final match.

As Naruto approached him, Neji prepared to neutralize his opponent with his Juken. He was hoping to finish his match fast so as to not reveal too many of his own abilities, his current opponent had made the mistake of showing to much of his skills, so he was confident in victory.

Unfortunately for him, Naruto was all too well familiarized with his fighting style, so when Neji attacked Naruto, the blond easily dodged and bent some air to throw his opponent away. The Hyuga recovered mid-air however, and lost no time in resuming his attack.

Neji kept trying to hit Naruto with his Juken, but he was easily avoiding damage and giving few attacks of his own. It was clear that the blond was only waiting for the opportune moment to retaliate; Neji wasn't planning on giving him the chance.

Not even a second after Neji resolved this, he was taken aback by his opponent deflecting a particular well aimed right handed jab with his right arm, which left both opponents standing side by side. This situation didn't last as Naruto used the same arm he blocked with to deliver a painful throat strike, closing Neji's trachea and depriving him from air.

The Hyuga fell to the ground whizzing. But not for long since Naruto kicked him in the stomach, which served to make him cough and therefore opening his windpipe again, as well as launch him to the air. Neji wasn't able to recover from his lack of air when Naruto met him midair and stomped on his belly taking him down to the arena once again. Not being able to get any air in Neji soon lost consciousness.

"Winner of the …cough…6th match, Naruto uzu…cough…Uzumaki"—announced Hayate and the audience exploded in cheers, the match might have been short, but the brutality displayed by Naruto more than made up for that—"Next contestants, Shikamaru Nara and Sabaku no Gaara please …cough…come down to the arena"—Naruto just smirked as he knew what the Nara would probably do.

"Proctor, I wish to forfeit"—announced the laid back genin.

"You sure? Then…cough cough cough…winner of the 7th by forfeit Sabaku no Gaara. Next match will be between the 6th …cough…and 3rd matches' winners…cough… Naruto Uzumaki and Sakura Haruno"—said kunoichi smiled confidently and jumped down to the arena. She was eager to get this match started, Naruto had never gone all out when sparing with her, this time he would have no option.

"I won't go easy on you this time Sa-chan"—proclaimed Naruto to his girlfriend.

"I wouldn't have it any other way To-kun"

.-._.-._.

"I know about couple quarrels, but this is ridiculous"—joked Zabuza up in the kages' booth. This caused Hiruzen to chuckle mirthfully.

"This promises to be interesting; they are not only teammates but romantically involved as well"—commented the Hokage—"I would guess she has reserved some tricks specifically for this battle"

"The gaki is good, but that girl has him wrapped around her little finger, I would say he will have a hard time winning this one"—commented the former Nuke-nin

"However you're not saying he will lose"—noted the disguised Kazekage.

"No, I'm not. He will win; she will just make him sweat for it"

.-._.-._.

"If both contestants are…cough...ready, begin!"—the Jounin then got away from the arena, just in time too, as Sakura threw several small pellets at Naruto.

The blond blew the pellets away with a gust of wind, however he was taken aback by the explosions. He had expected the combustive ones, which was solved by just getting them away from him, however the flash bombs among them were a surprise and he ended up blinded momentarily, along with a few others in the crowd. When he got his sight back he could only see smoke around him; it seemed that Sakura's plan was to make herself scarce as soon as possible, she should know better than try that on him by now.

With a blast of air he blew the smoke away and cleared the arena. He only got a brief glimpse of his surroundings before the smoke came back, Sakura had apparently placed more smoke bombs all around the place, or maybe some sort of seals, smoke bombs wouldn't last this long.

Next thing he knew was that a sizzling sound was coming from behind him. He barely had enough time to bend the explosion so that it didn't harm him; his clothes were still singed, but he was otherwise fine. Deciding to play it safe he stomped the ground and a column of rock rose below him, elevating him above the smoke cloud, from where he tried to locate the pinkette.

Too late he did learn of his mistake; a kunai with an explosive tag struck the column and blew it up, launching him and a bunch of debris into the air. He managed, though, to maneuver himself and give a kick in the air, sending the debris to the general direction from which the kunai came from.

He landed once again in the cloud of never ending smoke and as soon as he touched the ground he sunk into it to avoid being victim to more surprise attacks. Sakura saw this from within the cloud and cursed. She knew that he had no way of seeing her from below the ground, unless he was using the headhunter technique, which required chakra, and she didn't feel him use any, so she was safe.

On the other hand, however, she wasn't able to reach him while he was underground. He would eventually come up, he couldn't stay down there forever or he would run out of oxygen, but now they were at a stalemate and he was probably thinking up ways to counter her current strategy, she had been keeping him on his toes in order to prevent exactly that.

.-._.-._.

Meanwhile, below the ground, Naruto was thinking on what to do. The current situation wasn't favorable for him. As things were, he couldn't see his teammate turned opponent, and, if he knew her as well as he believed, she probably had made sure he couldn't use his sense of smell either, add to that that he couldn't hear her since she was extremely proficient in being stealthy, and he was left without options.

"I guess that only leaves sensing her chakra"—muttered the blond to himself—"damn, I didn't want to reveal this until I fought Gaara"

_**She has you cornered to you have no other option if you wish to win, and we DO need to win. If we let your woman fight Shukaku she will probably die. We need to fight Shukaku ourselves to gain his vessel's trust.**_

_Don't I know that?—_thought Naruto resignedly as he created two clones and the three of them sat to meditate.

.-._.-._.

Not even half a minute after Naruto sunk into the ground, Sakura saw him rise among the smoke cloud. She then threw a barrage of kunai at him, but the blond just disappeared. She felt his presence appear besides her and she lashed out at him. He caught her arm and grinned wildly at her before swinging her towards the other side of the arena.

He didn't even give her time of landing properly before he kawarimi'd to her and delivered an uppercut, sending her in the air just like he did Neji in the previous match. Too bad for him, Sakura knew this combo too well due to all their spars. As he was about to deliver the stomp that would send her crashing to earth she caught his leg and managed to turn their roles, with her holding him in place using his own leg. At this time both got a glance at each other's face, Sakura gasped in shock and Naruto had a curious look on his face.

They both crashed, but only his back felt the punishment of the fall, eliciting a painful gag from him. Sakura, had a worried expression, since this would surely hurt her boyfriend a lot, but she wasn't about to go easy on him. Her worry banished and was substituted by panic however as said boyfriend vanished with a small poof, leaving only smoke behind. She cursed under her breath just before being uppercut'd again by another Naruto rising from the ground. She landed in a crouch and glared at her opponent.

"Should have guessed, is that a new Doujutsu, To-kun?"—asked Sakura to her boyfriend inside the cloud. Many people in the stadium heard this and were excited about a possible hidden bloodline of their village; it was no secret that Konoha loved bloodlines. Doujutsu more than anything.

"No Sa-chan, this is a sage technique I learnt during this last month, a technique known to the Toad Sage, Jiraya of the Sannin. However, by what I know I have mastered this technique better than him"—people all around the stadium were both disappointed at the fact that there was no new bloodline, and awed that a child, presumably, learnt a sage level technique, it remained to be seen if said claims were true, but if they were, well, the new generation was undoubtedly promising—"However I'm curious by what's on your face, what are those things you're wearing?"

"No telling"—she said amusedly, she just knew he was pouting right about now.

"No fair Sa-chan. Well, whatever. _Kagebunshin no Jutsu_"—Sakura cursed after hearing him call the technique and prepared to fight directly. Seeing how Naruto could detect her now, it was useless to try the sneaky approach.

She detected two of the clones behind her and kicked one of them, dispelling it. The other however caught her leg and flipped her towards another clone, which was ready to strike. The clone never got the chance to hit her as Sakura sent a small barrage of kunai at the clone, she landed safely and took out several more kunai, sending them in all directions around her. Soon enough, the arena was converted into a giant spider web with ninja wire connecting every kunai to at least two others.

"Damn, she loves this trick way too much"—muttered Naruto.

.-._.-._.

"Hmm, interesting use of wire"—mentioned Zabuza casually—"She was the whole area covered and moving in that would be quite difficult for anyone"

"Anyone but her, that is"—answered the Hokage—"this is one of her favorite tactics"

.-._.-._.

Naruto sighed as he was getting tired of this, he had difficulties at the beginning of the fight since he couldn't locate Sakura, but now that he was able to, this was becoming quite bothersome, besides the fight had already gone on for quite a long time.

"Sorry Sa-chan, but I must finish this now; we can't keep this fight going any longer"

"Aha, and what, pray tell me, will you do, To-kun?"

"This"—he then started alternating his feet on the ground in rapid succession, this caused a small earthquake that dislodged the kunai from the wall, and frightened the audience.

Sakura, who was atop of the wire trap, lost her footing and fell to the ground, she didn't make impact as Naruto caught her, but before she could thank him he knocked her out.

"Winner by knock …cough…out, Naruto Uzumaki" –announced Hayate after the brief temblor passed. This time there was only a subdued applause given that most of the people watching were still agitated—"Before the final match…cough…we will be having a 10 minutes recess in order for both participants to prepare and rest"

Naruto sighed; at least he wouldn't have to fight immediately. He decided to rest in the participants' booth, so he carried Sakura, bridal style, there.

"Interesting fight to say the least"—commented Kakashi once Naruto arrived—"you said your technique was one of Jiraya's?"

"It's not his technique, the toads invented it. He knows the technique because he learnt it from them, I did too, though they say I have mastered it beyond what Jiraya did"—answered Naruto as he put Sakura against the wall so she could rest.

"Quite the feat, I'm impressed. That she forced you to use such a technique is quite amazing too"

"She had me totally blind in there, that technique gives me a different kind of awareness so I had to use it or I would never be able to locate her"

"Well, that's that, what will you do about your next fight though?"—asked Kakashi still reading his book.

"Oh, I'm not worried about that. I actually think that it will be easier than fighting Sa-chan"

"Really? Well, don't be overconfident out there, underestimating an enemy, even if they are really weak, can be a fatal mistake"

"I know that sensei, but I know how to counter this guy too"

"If you say so"

"What I'm worried about is the aftermath of this match, I know I will have energy left, but I don't know if I will be of much help. I tried to save energy for that, but Lee and Sakura fought really hard"

"Don't worry too much, we don't expect you to help much either, if you're able to help then it would be great, but Hokage-sama made plans keeping in mind that the participants of the tournament wouldn't be of much help"

"Well"—ran Hayate's voice through the stadium—"we are now…cough…ready to continue with the 9th and final match of this tournament, please…cough…get back to your seats. Naruto Uzumaki and Sabaku no Gaara, please come…cough…down to the arena"

"It looks like my rest is over, I will see you later"—with that Naruto jumped down from the booth.

"Hopefully we will. But why did he have to leave me with Sakura? If she doesn't wake up and I leave to fight he will surely kill me for leaving her unprotected. Oh well, I will cross that bridge when I get there"

.-._.-._.

**Sorry for the delay. I had a chapter ready a month ago, but I really didn't like that chapter so I spent most of this time tweaking it so that I liked it better, but nothing worked so I wrote another, this is what I decided to upload in the end. I still don't like it that much, but it's better than the one I had before.**

**R&R.**


	24. AN PLEASE READ!

**OK, it seems that the problem that caused the original story to be taken down wasn't actually a problem of FF but rather a problem of my computer. I had just installed Visual Studio and it appears that something went wrong during the installation (damn Microsoft) that made some internet protocols malfunction and send the wrong instruction. I'm not sure, I'm no expert.**

**Anyway, so I had to format my computer which is the reason it took an extra day to upload everything again. Hopefully that fixed the problem and it won't happen again. Unfortunately, even though I back up all my files every week in case something like this happens, I didn't back up the newest chapter of this story. That was stupid, I know! So now you will have to wait while I re-write it. That wasn't the only file I lost either, I have to download and redo a lot of things I had done this week since I didn't back them up. SORRY T_T**


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